Blank, dry, shady slate. :)

I'm at a loss. What do I do with this area under my cedars? It's so dry and shady and I hate the "dirt" look of it. I'm not a big fan of just throwing mulch under it either.

Another

The fencing in the previous pix is my neighbors...not much I can do about that.

This is at the end of my problem area. Unfortunately, the previous owners used anything they could find to "fill" the area. It's full of rusty nails, broken pottery, glass, junk. It has a depression and I would LOVE some sort of water feature there.

This message was edited Aug 31, 2008 3:37 PM

This is the very end of the problem area.

This is where we want to put a patio. It would be a half-circle or arc shaped retaining wall around the pine tree at the end of the wall and some sort of paver/flagstone/??? patio. I would like it to be an undulating shape to break up the severe lines of the ol' ugly workshop. No, I can't knock it down without divorce happening. :)

I would love to put a pergola roof over it with some lush vine climbing it, but it's so darn shady there.

This picture is taken from a position right alongside the swingset.

LOL about the divorce thing !

Are you adverse to thinning out the trees to let in more sunlight?
By "thinning" I mean lacing out, not digging them up. OR, you could remove selected ones if you want to go that route.

It seems as if you did that, you could grow nice shade plants in there, like Ferns, hostas, hydrangeas, etc.

I don't want to remove trees, I'm not sure what you mean by lacing out.

Michelle

"Lacing out" means thinning out the branches of trees to shape them, and to let more light come through.
There's sort of an "art" to doing it so that the trees don't look butchered.
It involves more than just cutting lower limbs. Strategic cuts are made to maintain form, but allow more sunlight to pass through without destroying the basic shape of the tree.

Aw ..that workshop isn't so bad and there isn't a ton of stuff piled up outside it or anything. Some guys can be great 'collectors.' A little paint in a great color.. a little art --a farm basket or some tools hanging from a copper rod or from lattice -- it will be great. May even be functional.

Can you grow this? American Spikenard (Aralia Racemosa) - google it. Will grow under the trees - etc.

American Spikenard looks interesting. It's very dry where I want to plant and it says it grows best in rich, moist woods. That would be the other side of my yard, lol. :) I don't want to have to water anything, besides the ecological standpoint (I use collected rain water for veggies), my water bill would be astronomical.

Spikenard kind of reminds me of the Highbush Cranberries that I have throughout the woods.

I would go for Jasperdale's suggestion and get a few professionals in to cost the work for cutting some of the limbs from the trees, those people should be informed off what it is you hope to achieve after there is more light allowed onto this area of garden. My suggestion would be to either make a round tree seat at one of your chosen trees, lay down a brick/wood edging and back-fill with a mulch or gravel in a colour you like and place some tall, medium and smaller pots in a group to make it look more restful to the eye. down at the outhouse area, I would put up some trellis to grow some vines that have flowers that come at various times of the season to give you colour for longer periods when you sit out on the patio you want, you would need to add organic matter to the soil where you plant these, add a mirror to the wall to add light and reflection and when or if you have patio lighting either by candles or electric, this mirror will give you even more romantic lighting, you can pick up old wardrobe mirrors quite cheep from second hand stores or where folks dump there old furniture, once you have the framework of the work done, you can add to it as you get a better idea of shapes, colours and hight that you think will suit. good luck, it can be fun once you get over the daunting tasks, hope you get your dream garden, WeeNel.

If this is an area that you will eventually want featured in your yard, you may want to do a path.... mulch, stone, or pavers. This will take up some of the expanse of space and be really functional as well.

The area that you have that has been used as a dump (broken glass, nails, etc) is a problem. Those things will continue to work their way up to the top after each rain, etc. The best thing is to really try to remove as much as you can, even though it is tedious. I have been doing this and every time I walk through my area I look for glimpses of glass to pick up.

Julie, in all reality, my entire back yard was "filled". It was a river bottom/wetland and when the farmer decided to subdivide his property in the mid 40s, they dumped whatever the could find. Most of my yard has about 6 inches of topsoil over the clay that is over the fill.

That "depression" area isn't used for anything, I was thinking of a small waterfall/riverbed, that way the debris won't matter as much. I know I can't put a pond there. :(

If you had a liner maybe you could do a small pond?

It would have to be a hard liner...I don't think we could dig down far enough because of all the tree roots. We'll see! :)

The vinca vine grows very well for me in the same conditions that you have. I mow on the highest setting after the spring bloom, most years.
Without being able to dig there where you want the water feature, you still could have one. Think of a creek bed down the length of it and a birdbath deep "pond" at the end. It dosen't have to be deep to be beautiful.