Update on My Big Landscape Design Project - Finally a Private and Useable Outdoor Space!

 

At long last, I have an update on my crazy landscape design project.  If you haven't been following this project - I have a Victorian home was built in the 1880's.  It sits on a quarter acre of land, the majority of which had a steep slope and was not useable.  The only space we had to sit outside was our front porch.  The porch is really not private and I like to sit outside and enjoy nature - not watch cars and neighbors go by.  We also did not have anywhere to entertain outside.  This new area is private on three sides!  I am thrilled with it.  It met all my expectations.

We are fortunate that our neighbor has a commercial landscape contracting business and offered to do our residential project.  He has great experience on building retaining walls and doing things the right way so they drain correctly and last.  Based on the slope of the yard, we had to do a five foot above the ground retaining wall.  We fenced in the new area with a lovely white picket fence.  We also did a two foot high upper wall for our patio area, leveled it out and filled it with rice stone.  We put sod in the lower area.  I love the lush look of the green grass!  So cozy and private!

This project took about two months total to complete.  I'm just thankful that there are still a few weeks of decent weather so I can enjoy it before it gets too cold here in New England.  Although, I can picture sitting out here in the fall with a hot cup of cocoa and a gas fire place to warm us up.



A before photo of the area taken many years ago...

The new space!  We kept some of the Rhododendrons for privacy.  They make a great natural screen.

We had to do a lot of digging and leveling in this upper space.  We exposed some of the foundation bricks that needed repointing.  My husband repointed the bricks and I painted this new silver color that goes with the house (much better than the old bright red color - yuck).



We have a lovely lattice screen that will be going on the back up the upper patio to cover the ugly basement window.  My husband has put it together and now we just have to paint and install it.

This is an antique porch swing I restored that was in my barn for over 10 years.  I purchased the swing frame online and put it together.  The lake is down the hill behind those trees.  We get a great lake view after the leaves fall.  We're going to trim out some of them to try to get a little view during the summer months.

 

 These are the urns that I found at Brimfield Antique Fair this summer... 

 

LOVE! LOVE!  LOVE!

I planted boxwoods across the front of the upper patio area to separate the space.  I love the smell of them.  They make me think of an old estate.

It's so nice to swing and look up at the pretty old house.


 This was the upper patio area "before."  Overgrown and a totally useless space...

AFTER... much better! The house has a lot more curb appeal and this extra useable space will definitely help with resale in the future.


Here's an updated photo of the space!  I've been searching high and low for patio furniture to go into the upper patio area.  I finally found this set below for half price at Lowes!  Sometimes it pays to wait until the end of the season!  I'm going to be covering that ugly window behind the screen so it blends in with the foundation.  I was hoping the screen would cover it but it's come up a little short.

Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing this project with me.  Hope you have a wonderful day and can find time to do the things that you enjoy!


Great parties that I'm linking with...
http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
Thursday
Creative Things Thursday @ The Vintage Farmhouse
Inspiration Gallery Link Party @ The Golden Sycamore
Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From My Front Porch To Yours 
The Humble Brag Link Party @ One Project Closer/The Better Half
Paint Party @ Start at Home
Throwback Thrusday @ Glitter Glue and Paint
Create It Thursday @ Lamberts Lately Show Me Extraordinary Thursday Party @ The 36th Avenue
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Creek Cottage
100 Ideas Under $100 @ Beyond The Picket Fence
Creative Things Thursday @ The Vintage Farmhouse
Blog Stalking Thursday @ The Crafty Blog Stalker
The Weekly Creative Saturday Party @ The Girl Creative and Reasons To Skip The Housework
Friday
Fabulously Creative Linky Party @ Jennifer Rizzo
Show And Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed
Frugal Friday @ Shabby Nest
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Vintage Inspiration Friday @ Common Ground
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
TGIF Linky Party @ A Peek Into My Paradise  

Saturday
Any Link Goes Party @ Bacon Time With The Hungry Hungry Hypo 
Weekend WrapUp Party @ Tatertots and Jello 
Serenity Saturday @ Serenity You
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal
What To Do Weekends @ Crafts A La Mode
Sunday
Get Schooled Saturday @ Too Much Time On My Hands
Overflowing with Creativity @ It's Overflowing
Sunday Showcase Party @ By Stephanie Lynn 
Sundae Scoop Weekend Wrap Up Party @ I love Nap Time 
That DIY Party @ DIY Show Off
So Darn Crafty Party @ Sew Many Ways
Think Pink Party @ Flamingo Toes
Let's Get Social Sunday @ My Turn for us 
Sunday Show Off Linky Party @ Twigg Studios
DIY Sunday Showcase Linky Party @ VMG206
Get your DIY on Fall Party Challenge @ Confessions of a DIYer

How to Plan Your Garden Landscape Design - Plant Selection

Hello!  I'm so happy to share our updates on our big landscaping project.  We've selected our plantings for the front of the retaining wall and have laid everything out in the space.  I'm also providing some "How-to" information on selecting plants and laying out your garden landscape.

Determine your style

You'll need to take the style of your home and type of garden into consideration when choosing plants.   Formal and traditional gardens have very different plantings than country or cottage gardens.  Do some research  and look through gardening magazines and Pinterest for inspiration photos.  You will probably find a common theme in the photos you like.

If you like traditional gardens, I have a post on how to create one that you may find helpful:  How to Design a Traditional Garden Landscape on a Small Budget

How to decide what to plant in your landscape

Once you've determined your style, you then have to consider the following factors.  A good local nursery can help you answer the questions on soil type and planting zone.

• Amount of sunlight.  If you have heavy shade this will limit your choices greatly.
• Space for planting
• Soil Type - what nutrients may be required
• Budget
• Maintenance Comfort Level
• Your Planting Zone - see image below

USDA PLANTING ZONE MAP

I had to take all these factors under consideration when planning my landscaping project.  We have an antique Victorian home so our garden style is traditional.  The area we are planting is partly shady.  It gets some morning and afternoon sun.  We are in Zone 5 so we need plants that can tolerate a long and cold winter.  My largest planting area is in front of a retaining wall which is under a large Oak tree.  It's a big area to fill with a limited budget.  My goal is to soften this area so you see less of the wall.  We've added some good topsoil to amend the sandy and rocky area around the wall.

The plants we've selected can handle our partly shady area and work well in a traditional style garden.  I also want a low maintenance landscape with some blooms that stays within my budget.

4 medium sized Dwarf Alberta Spruce
3 "Blushing Bride" Hydrangea bushes
1 White Hydrangea Tree (for the area that gets the most sun)
5 medium sized Hosta

Choosing the layout - basic layout

You'll save a lot of money planning the layout and planting everything yourself. 

Basic layout of my plants and shrubs:  tallest in the back - so my Spruces are against the wall.  The Hydrangea bushes are in the center front of the spruces and the Hosta are spaced evening along the front.   My white hydrangea tree (not seen in these photos) is in front of the hard edge of the wall to soften that area and make it less noticeable.




Don't forget to mulch and water, water, water until your plants get established.

Please stop back next week for more updates on this project.

Have a wonderful day!

Crazy stuff going on at my house... Landscape design

Here's a peek at all the crazy stuff going on at my house... 

We are on a quarter acre city lot and the majority of our yard sloped heavily.   The good news is that section of the little yard is private on three sides and if we cut out some branches on our trees we get a lake view!  I'd been frustrated about not being able to use this side of the yard.  The upper part had very overgrown bushes and you couldn't even put a chair out there because of the steep slope of the yard.  Mowing wasn't much fun either.

My home was built in 1885 and it surprises me that so many large families lived in the house but no one ever dealt with the sloping lawn.  I think most of the kids walked to a park close by or played in the street.  Just seems like such a waste of space not to utilize that yard area.

My neighbor owns a commercial construction business and agreed to do a residential job for us.  To bring it up to level, we would have needed a very tall retaining wall.  We decided to do two levels and have a raised patio and lower lawn area.  It's not a large space but at least it will be functional.  I'm looking forward to enjoying morning coffee in our new patio space.

It's a work in progress...



This is how the house looked when we moved in 8 years ago. 
So dark... It was like it was in a cave.

 

Above is the most recent photo before the project started.  Believe it or not we pruned and cut back all the overgrown trees so you could see the house.  The Oak took over again.  You'll see in the new photos we've pruned it again. :-)  I love Oak Trees so I would never cut it down.

 

Unfortunately, you can't get a good idea of the steep slope in these photos.  The pallets in the front are for our walkway project (which will be in another post).

This is taking A LOT of fill!  The lower wall is about four to five feet above the ground.  It just looked like such a mess.  I was really worried about how it would turn out.  Once the upper part was built and leveled, I could start to see how it would come together.



There's my poor neighbor working hard on a humid, 90 degree day.  You can get an idea of the slope we were dealing with from this photo.  I'm not in love with the grey block but once it is all landscaped with shrubs it should soften up a lot.  Unfortunately, the choice was about budget.



We had to remove huge Rhododendrons from this area. Now we've exposed the ugly red foundation that needs some re-pointing. We'll be painting that ugly foundation a color that goes with the house and fixing those windows.



Now the fun part begins...  dressing this thing up and putting on the lipstick.  This upper part will have a clean row of boxwood with some cement urns on each side of the stairs.  It will be filled with this pretty rice stone.  It actually has a sparkle to it that you can't see in this photo.  The lower level will be sod with a white picket fence. 

 I bought a set of these gorgeous urns at Brimfield Antique Fair.  Can't wait to use them on the new patio! 

I'm still worried about how it is all going to look.  Keeping fingers crossed that we can pull it all together.  At least we will have a space that we can use and that will help with resale in the future.  Watch for my updates on this project.  If you have any advice on plantings, landscape or garden ideas, I would love to hear from you.

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I hope you have a wonderful day!