Hey all. Any advice on a landscaping ideas? Zone 8b
There’s a current garden bed (East facing window) Yet what medium for a long rectangular backyard? I’m looking at getting a pair hardy Banana for the corner and lots of pollinators (lantana perhaps), a row of medium plants like canna hugging the long fence line and short friends at the front of those along the lawn. Unsure if I’ll use pavers to “raise them” like the current bed?
Or try something else.
by EspookyLlama
1 Comment
Nice big yard. Would look much nicer with more than a bed of cannas and bananas in there though! I’ve gone a bit nuts as I’m also redeveloping part of my yard but take your time. Except for the sad looking patio bed this yard looks tidy and easy to care for. Just study up for as long as it takes and develop at your leisure.
Make a Pinterest board of all the backyards that appeal to you. Get landscape design books from the library and thumb through them just to see the possibilities.
Live here for a few months and keep a list of things about the space that annoy you. Lawn hard to mow, water. There’s a puddle right there every time it rains that takes a couple days to go away. Hate the sun on patio/door/window during that month, dislike seeing that neighbor’s trailer, windows, deck…
What do you want to do in the yard? Just look nice? Grow food? Watch the bugs and birds? Entertain? Accommodate kids and/or dogs? Extension of the house?
Go through your collection of inspiration yards and see the common themes.
If you want bananas maybe you want more tropical fruits. If you love cannas maybe you want a tropical looking yard. If you want the bug/bird action then include lots of native plants. I suggest looking up Doug Tallamy’s books and talks. Maybe you’d like to go with natives and develop your own backyard national park. Doesn’t have to be either/or. I’ve got mostly native plants but my patio garden is dinosaur themed with primitive plants that are mostly not natives, I cannot let go of my succulents and there’s a good sized food garden as well but I put my yard on the home grown national park map.
It seems that you have a warm season invasive grass as lawn. To help keep it from being as big of a nuisance dig a trench and install solid lawn edging. I just used cheap plastic as wide as I could find. Then sink the the blocks to level of the lawn behind it so mower wheels can run on top and you’ll do somewhat less edging. Those blocks aren’t actually holding back any soil.
As you figure out what you want back there I’d fuss with the existing bed. ID the little trees, figure out if they are placed to best advantage. If they are oaks or some other large tree, you won’t be happy long term and remove or move them to the middle of the yard for instance. Maybe there are some surviving garden plants in there, look at them all with a plant ID app. Then fix the edging as described, dig out all the grass you can see. Sheet mulch with a layer of cardboard and mulch and add more shrubs, perennials and bunch grasses in there to make a patio garden. You might want it to be your native plant garden for the bugs and birds and include a birdbath. See your state’s native plant society. The website generally has a garden section that should have some great info for you. This site should be a good jumping off point. [https://www.wildflower.org/collections/](https://www.wildflower.org/collections/) Poke around for more. Audubon, Xerces, Doug Tallamy’s HGNP site and NWF all have information on ways to support and attract the bugs and birds.
If you cannot stand it and want to get your hands even dirtier then go ahead and put in beds for bananas and cannas along the fence edging as I’ve described. Make each bed deeper than you think necessary as you don’t want to crowd their large leaves. If the banana leaf is supposed to get 5′ across then bed is a minimum of 10′ wide for instance. You’d plant in middle of bed and they will pup and need all that space. These plants and blocks can be moved successfully when you are inspired to do more and you can repurpose the plastic or metal edging as well. Be sure to sheet mulch around them. The cardboard breaks down in a year and won’t impede new shoots but poke around and cut slits if you find shoots if they come up further than expected from the main plant.