So you know what you have...

       You have made your list haven't you? Of course. we're going to start with the front yard, cause its the face we show to the world on a daily basis. Now that you have assessed your needs, and your wants your inner most gardening desires, AND you know what you have... you can begin your landscaping plan.

        You have a combination of these options, a shady yard, a sunny yard, a dry yard a wet yard. So as a general rule of thumb (there are many exceptions but this is for Tartan Village residents), if you house faces south or east (faces telegraph and Cedar knolls), you will get sun in the morning and throughout the day. If your house faces north or west (faces Kingstowne and Van Dorn st.) then you will get sun in the afternoon so that means you will get shade throughout most of the day.

         If you own a sunny yard consider yourself lucky. Generally sunny yards mean more flowers and that means more bang for your buck. Most of us around here have dry shady yards, so that's what we're going to focus on this post. Your yard might not necessarily be dry but  you also don't want to be watering it everyday, so you might want options that are drought tolerant. So for our basic square yards, there are several options. Most people like sod, most of us have a planting bed, edged with landscape timbers in front of the window, and sod, and that's about it. Its cool, easy maintenance, it always looks clean.

        But if you want to make your yard pop you can do it with some plantings, or interesting edging for your plant bed,

        Let's start with the edging... It's a good idea to look around at what your neighbors have done with their yards maybe get some ideas, using similar materials is good because it enhances a sense of cohesion in the community. Some of the houses around this neighborhood have stone as edging particularly slate. This is a good look it complements the architecture of the houses around Tartan, In this house it was the neighbors cool landscape that inspired the homeowner to change his.  Here is what the yard looks like now...

       Much better now :) minus the dead grass, there was a burst pipe in spring and it destroyed the sod (more on that another time). See how natural the stone looks? and it looks great with the brick. Thanks neighbors for the good ideas! These stones weren't all that expensive they are broken fragments of slate from a discard pile at a gardening center. They sell them for 7.99 a cubic foot, there are 4 cubic feet here, so roughly it cost 32 dollars for this edging. Campbell and Ferrara on Route 1 sells these. Also you don't have to limit yourself to stone, you can use bricks for edging, Affordable plastic edging, and landscape timbers.'

Here's another example of reclaimed materials for edging...

Here these are reclaimed bricks from a salvage yard and the back is slate however these are slate roof shingles, 10 cents a piece. Bargains!

       Now on to the plantings, So Shade loving plants... unfortunately when it comes to shade the colors aren't as vibrant as with the sun lovers, you get more subtle coloring and mostly with the foliage not the actual flowers. Here's a very short list of shade loving perennials:

• Hostas
• Baptisias
• Columbines
• Ferns
• Galanthus
• Geraniums
• Vinca
• Hydrangeas

For a more thorough list visit https://mgnv.org/, the master gardeners have the best lists!

    

       All the plants chosen for this particular yard were chosen because they are very shade tolerant and don't require as much watering as other plants. Also perennials were chosen because they come back every year so they are less maintenance than annuals which need to be replaced yearly. However it is all personal choice if you enjoy digging and yard work maybe an annual garden is for you (also some annuals start self seeding which is always nice). 

     Now a little on structure, so when planting on a bed you want tall plants in the back (like in this case the tall lilies in the center, there are also tall ferns in the back but they're still growing, later in the summer they will reach 5 feet tall. In the middle you want medium height plants, in this case the hostas, and short ones to the front in this case small hostas, daylilies and annual coleus, that way you  see everything! Another option would be columbines in the back, hostas, and vinca in the front. But you don't have to limit yourself to perennials there are evergreen shrubs and a whole ton of plants that can tolerate shade.

In this yard a tall planter planted with a tall grass, double begonias, dusty miller and sweet potato vine also acts as a focal point. However some yards have trees in the center which act as the focal point or they're the reason the'res shade there in the first place. Take advantage and plant around the tree so that it is the focal point everyone loves trees. It is always a good idea to consult the master gardeners website and the people at nurseries when buying plants, if you describe what you want and where you want to put it they can suggest lots of options for planting that will do well in our micro-climate. We'll talk about sunny yards soon. Now forth and garden! and feel free to ask questions in the comments section.

Where do i begin?

Most of us are not lucky enough to inherit a garden when we buy a house. In my case my house was pretty blank. A Townhouse in Virginia, with a juniper hedge out front and azaleas on the side, i didn't even have a privacy fence. Here's what it used to look like...

Lame i know...

But there's always potential to turn our gardens into something we can enjoy and the people around us can enjoy or at least enjoy to look at. Whether we're starting from scratch or renovating and remodeling what we have there's lots of things we can do, for example i dug up all the juniper and got rid of it (it was hell, more on that later), moved the azaleas to form a separate hedge and now i have a yard i actually enjoy and appreciate.

The purpose of this blog is to help maybe guide other do-it-yourself homeowners in improving their spaces or maybe just so they can have a laugh at my struggles with my yard. I laugh at myself so is all good. 

So where do I begin?

Before considering what to plant, construct, landscape we have to consider practical matters such as budget, skill, time for maintenance, time for building and exactly how we plan to use our garden. I'll write this from my perspective, i have a very low budget (in the hundreds of dollars maybe), reasonable skilled with a shovel and a hammer,  time is weekends and afternoons, maintenance as little as possible except for watering, and i plan on using my garden to relax, entertain and grow some food. 

So my first tips are these, evaluate your space. Try to visualize what you want to see there eventually, do you want to grow food? entertain friends and family? play with your pets? Make a list, it helps, i have so many lists i have lists of lists.

Next assess your yard conditions, how much light and shade does your garden have, how is the soil and moisture? Is it windy? All these factors affect what you can do in the yard, and what plantings you can get. 

Now plan what you want to do, an outdoor room? beds for crops? a place for flowers? maybe you just want grass and a couple of shrubs, clean and simple (sometimes i wish this was the route i took).

Lastly now think of your own style, this is highly personal, and it should reflect your personality but also keep it in bounds of what your community allows and make sure it is somewhat consistent with the rest of your neighborhood, you want your garden to be a source of inspiration not discord with your neighbors. That would suck. But always remember its supposed to make you happy.

Now write it down, Make those lists :)