I recently removed all 975 sq ft of lawn from my front yard (shout out to Resource Central for doing the heavy lifting). I thought I had a good plan of what to do with the giant dirt patch, but every time I look at it, I get overwhelmed with the very real possibility that I will put in a ton of work and it will look like shite. Reaching out to Reddit to get some ideas! I've got about 200 sq ft of native plants coming from the Garden in a Box program. As much as the Lilac bush dismays me (previous owners pruned it to hell) I don't have the stomach to pull it out. The redbud tree offers a ton of shade and is a great centerpiece, but makes it hard to envision other trees on the lot. There's a cemented brick border that I'm not in love with but also don't want to spend a ton of time pulling it out. Flagstone path? Rock river? Boarder? two or three garden beds? Moss boulders?! Thank you so much in advance for your help!
by Late-Bee6489
2 Comments
Woo! Congrats on your beautiful new space!
I’d go for a thin layer of compost and a decent layer of mulch over the whole area. Chipdrop is great but I’d also include some straw and mulched leaves to get some biomass regenerating the soil quickly. Personally I’m not a fan of rock, it’s not really a natural look in the front range and it is hell to work with. Dig about 4″ of the soil out from the borders with your walkways before laying down the mulch. This will create a little pocket for your mulch to settle into and eliminate weed pressure around the concrete/brick.
Garden beds would be a great idea if you plan to garden annual vegetables which may require more water and fertilization that your natives. Otherwise, they’re not necessary. I used 2×6 kiln dried lumber from the big box store with 5 1/2″ 4×4 corner pieces driven with heavy duty deck nails. They’re cheap, low profile, and they have held up for years.
If this will just be a low maintenance native plant garden, just go crazy. Spread native, low water, front range seeds and starts everywhere. See what comes up, what does well, and what you like. If you tend to walk a certain path through the yard, you can transplant the stuff out of your way.
It was tempting for me to go for the more charismatic flowering species, but don’t sleep on the grasses. They will do great things for your soil, critters, and provide interesting depth in summer and winter. Maybe a couple honeylocust or gambel oak trees?
Could plant a couple more redbuds. Spaced irregularly so they won’t grow over the house like the existing one. House appears to face south, shade is good.
Or plant a group of shrubs to the right towards the street to balance the redbud.
I’d arborize and remove trunks on the lilac to keep it off the house. I’d remove the ring of blocks and pretend it’s a native plant.
I was overwhelmed at this stage too. Planning for the dogs helped. They need a perimeter path and diagonal ones heading for the corners. Once that was settled the yard was broken down into 3 good sized beds that I could manage. So maybe figuring out the path will help you design the plantings. Maybe planning the path will help you figure out if a dry stream bed or outcropping of rocks would be just right.