New House and Yard

I told a few people I would share pics of the new place. We moved a month ago and I now have the yard that I wanted. It is a about .4 acres in town and backs to a small creek. We actually own all the way to the middle of the creek where the neighbors lot starts, though the back 50 feet of our lot and others is not fenced. We also have a 12" gas line and easement running through the lot so the possibility is always there that they will come in and rip anything up that is planted over it. In other words, no Japanese Maples or large caliper trees are going to be bought to be planted there. :)

I forgot to get pics of the whole house, but here is a pic from when it was listed.

My husband likes landscaped, straight lines and I promised the front would stay conservative for him. Anything after the bulbs this summer will be more conservative. The back will really be my playground. My husband got his big garage and I got my big yard. :)

Below are up close pics of the front beds. It faces West mostly, but slightly North. There are two Wax Myrtle trees on the corners, and low growing Indian Hawthorne bushes in the front of the beds. The tree that was in the previous picture is a Cedar Elm.

I would like to put some more bushes behind the Indian Hawthornes, but I have not decided what yet. This weekend, I did plant canna's on each side of the entry, about 40 Glad bulbs behind the bushes on the leftt, and some caladiums to the far left of the Wax Myrtle on the left. I have no other beds prepared, and wanted some kind of color for this summer.

Right side...

Here is the area that really needs some work, but I have promised my husband that I would consult a landscaper to draw up plans and work from that. We have this long, wide side lot of almost 2500 square feet of pure grass, but for one tree (another Cedar Elm by the driveway). This is part of the area where the gas easement runs and no permanent building is alowed to be within 20 feet of either side. Also it does not run perpendicular to our house so it is wider up close to the street. See the marked pictures below.

Anyone reading this, feel free to make suggestions. I would definitely appreciate them. Because my husband wants it to be appealling to the HOA driven neighborhood (resale value is always on his mind), I am a little more stumped.

I have a list of small trees and some bushes, stuff like Crepe Myrtles, Redbud, Spirea, Loropetalum, smaller shrub Roses, Dwarf Pomegranate, holly and some well behaved perennials, but I am just not sure of the design.



This message was edited Mar 28, 2006 1:11 PM

Another picture of the side lot...

Here's a picture of the whole back yard, standing from the the neighbor's incline behind the creek. You can't really tell from the picture, but the creek starts right below the big log. Since the south side of the lot does not go straight back, we only own 36.5 feet of actual creek front (compared with 147 feet of street frontage), but it's fine with me. The creek is more of a weed filled stream behind our lot, but it's just enough to give me a wildlife habitat behind the house.

The dirt mounds you see are four small trees we had planted a couple weeks ago. Behind the fence there is and area about 25 feet wide that is almost bare, because they stripped out all the trees when the put in the Gas Main 10 years ago. We planted two small bald Cypress close to the creek and two Texas Ash farther up the incline. One of the Texas Ash is probably in danger of being lost if they ever have to dig up the line, but we got them all for a great price ($30 each planted and guaranteed).

Here's a portion of our little creek with my foot in the picture to give you a sense of the size.

Here's a closer picture of the back. To the bottom right, you can see part of the tree's and brambles that I want to tidy up, by getting rid of the greenbriar and trimming out low Honey Locust branches. There is a nice redbud trying to grow in there too.

You can also see the big American Elms in the fenced area beyond the garden shed. More of that later.

And you can see, to the left, the big open area that will be made into a long, wide, curvy bed along the fence. Plus, you can see Miss Susie Q (the dog), who is just loving the new yard. :)

Staci, I am so happy for you! What a great blank canvass to start with! Try some of these plans for your side yard. I especially like the Island plans for that area, maybe adding a garden bench.
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/category.jhtml?categoryid=/templatedata/bhg/category/data/gardenplans.xml

Thanks for the link, I like the different plans they have like "Property Line Garden". That is just what I need. I don't know if you can see the bench against the house in the picture. It's eventual place will somewhere in that yard. I was hoping to put it right in the middle of our fence line, with small trees next to it, but that is where the slope is. For now it will stay against the house.

My DH and I actually sat in the bench last night around 8pm and enjoyed the evening. We saw a bunny run across the yard from under the neighbors yard. That's the fifth bunny seen by one of us. Last Saturday, I almost stepped on one laying under the Curly dock leaves by the creek. He was so cute. The dogs will keep them out of the back yard, but I might have some nibbling out front.

I have a couple projects this weekend...

If you look at the third post above and the picture of the left side of the walk. I bought a shorter growing camellia to put back in the corner behind the Wax Myrtle. I need to do some major digging this weekend to get the soil amended and add it.

The second project will be putting in a herb garden. Look at the picture of the back of the house and a bed will be placed on the left side. It will start just to the left of where the patio ends and run down the back of the house and run under the bay window that is in the kitchen nook. It will stop there for now, but I'd like to eventually put a small tree at the next corner. I already have a rosemary bush, oregano, thyme and basil to put in the bed, and will add more eventually. I can't live without fresh herbs and that way it will all be right outside of the kitchen.

It all sounds perfect! I like the idea of a camelia there at the front.

figured out how to see the whole thing...duh

what a great yard

Native Texas Plants: Landscaping Region by Region is a great book, has lots of plans

Thanks! We actually have that book and I love it. My husband found it at Half Price Books about 8 years ago. It was before I was even gardening and he was in charge of the yard (ie grass and trees). He bought it and another of the Wasowski's books - Native Texas Gardens : Maximum Beauty Minimum Upkeep - for fairly cheap. I did not pick them up myself for a few more years, but refer to it often now. It's really funny that he bought those because he is very much a grass-and-hedges-formal-garden person. He knows that the backyard is my domain though.

I still have not done a whole lot that I planned to. The big bed that I want to put in the backyard fence corner still has not been built. I have spoken to a local landscaper about drawing up plans for the front side yard. I did add plants under the trees for the shade bed. I have also removed tons of non-native weeds from the wild area behind the fence and added couple native bushes there too - an American Beautyberry, Strawberry Bush (Euonymus), and a Carolina Buckthorn. I can't wait to start the big sun bed, but just want to do it correctly and remove all of the bermuda grass.

I love the yard and wildlife it brings. I now have a young bunny that hangs out in the front and back. In the back shade bed, my Iron Cross Oxalis never has leaves anymore, just tall empty stalks. In the front, my Blackie Sweet Potato vine is like candy to that little bunny. The thing grows like a weed and is smothering everything around it (original pint pot covers at least 4 feet x 2 feet) so I don't mind. Almost every evening in the last week, around 9:30 or 10:00 pm, we can open the door and see his little cotton tail hop off a ways. :)

Sweezel! Your house looks so much like my first house here in The Woodlands. I have to wonder if it was the same architect! Variations, of course. Is this the floor plan? Downstairs - dining room to right, study to left. Living room straight back with windows looking out back. Master bedroom at back left. Family room at back right, with kitchen between family room and dining room (and a little breakfast room off to the right of the kitchen and family room...Upstairs has game room at back of house, with three bedrooms across the front of the house. I am so curious. We loved that house and its layout. Beautiful home, great yard. What fun!
CJ

Is McKinney near Dallas?

Nope, not the one. It's actually a DFW homebuilder who built it and it is actually smaller than it looks because it's wide, and not very deep. I told someone that we downsized and they could not believe it after looking at the picture. It's living, dining, family room and kitchen down and gameroom, master and 2 extra bedrooms up. Actually, I wish it was more like you described. I really hate the fact that the master is up, but it was what we gave up for the big yard and 3 car garage.

Thank you for the compliments. We have all kinds of ideas on things to add or change in the yard. We just need to implement them. We have had to make a few changes inside to accomodate my husbands business and do some painting first though.

Yep, about 30 miles north.

fall is for planting...trees....Joshua always has the best ones..in our area

I've always known fall was the best time for planting trees, but the first thing we did when moving in was plant 6 of them. :-) We were determined to get the two we are using to screen our neighbor's house from our patio. They were the larger pricier ones and are doing wonderfully. The four others were young ones thrown in at a deep discount. They went beyond the fence.

I am having to water them all well. You can see the hose in the pictures above - it is a 100 foot hose with a 50 foot coil hose attached that I had drug down to water the 4 young ones. I do it weekly, but have lost one of the bald cypress, the one that was farthest from the faucet, due to neglect. I will probably replace it and add another in the drainage easement in the fall.

Hopefully I can get all the dang perennials that I have in pots in the ground by fall too. They will either overwinter outside in pots or in the ground, and in the ground would be better.