Hi Everyone
I finally decided to stop admiring other people’s yards and start building my own little urban oasis.
Over the summer we fully gutted the original yard which was just grass with a lot of concrete, and added a BC greenhouse, fire pit and installed stone pavers throughout.
My goal once the hardscape was completed, was to cram as many plants in as possible. I wanted lush but structured.
The Japanese maples were original to the house, but we’ve added some beautiful trees like Paperbark Maple, Serviceberry and Chinese dogwood (front yard), for height and seasonal drama. For shrubs, there are some Aztec Pearl Mexican Orange, little lime hydrangeas and some Daphne odora.
To keep things colourful, we’re planting Himalayan maidenhair ferns, lady’s mantle, apple blossom yarrow, and echinacea. Ground covers are European wild ginger and baby tears, and we’ve added grasses like blond ambition.
The entire back fence and garage wall is growing white Jasmine and we have a bamboo walkway along the east side of the house.
Below is a before (planting), during and after planting. We used nursery plants for everything and hoping after 2-3 years all the gaps are filled in!
More to come as we finish the front yard and blvd.
by gogogogogogogo111
26 Comments
Additional info
We are planting:
6x Trees
111x Shrubs
250x ground covers
570x grasses
1,200x perennials
Representing 154 different plant types
This is incredible! All of it. The space, the green windows, the stone, the fence…
Those sheets of moss are particularly 👌🏼💚
Love it, it turned out amazing!
This is wonderful! I’d love updates as the moss fills in 😁
Stunning transformation! What country/Zone are you in?
Is your bamboo completely enclosed with cement or something?
Holy invasive plants wow not good
It that at least a clumping bamboo? Otherwise you’ll have nothing but bamboo very soon. That stuff is relentless and incredibly invasive and your neighbours will hate you. It looks like you’re in BC so I’ll leave this [https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Documents/bamboo-best-management-practices.pdf](https://metrovancouver.org/services/regional-planning/Documents/bamboo-best-management-practices.pdf)
Did you consider native plants at all? If you really want to support pollinators, native plants are far better – not just at feeding pollinators, but as host plants for the many specialist insects that rely on specific native species of plants in order to reproduce.
The garden is designed in a beautiful way, and aesthetically, I do like it. I think it would have a much more positive impact, be easier to maintain, and attract a much wider range of beautiful little visitors if the plants were chosen more thoughtfully.
For a pollinator garden have you considered choosing plants native to BC/ Pacific Northwest?
Genuinely took a great Hardscaping job and showed your whole ass with lack of any knowledge of invasive plants by putting that bamboo in the ground. Tell your neighbors sorry for me will you?
That is a cool flag stone patio. You’ll have to post an update next year when everything is in bloom!
The ignorance to claim it is a pollinator garden, then cognitive dissonance to continue to argue is astounding
I mean your hardscaping is _tip top_ but it’s a hard sell to call it a pollinator garden my homie
Looks great, beautiful attention to texture, pattern, and rhythm – but let’s all be honest with ourselves here !
If the white jasmine you planted is Jasminum polyanthum, it’s a pretty vigorous invasive that can be very difficult to remove and chokes out other plants. It’s from China and should not be planted in North America.
Bamboo is also an absolutely terrible idea but it sounds like you’ve already been informed on that one.
Questionable choices for a pollinator garden. Please do more research before you cause more environmental harm and headaches for your neighbors by planting invasive species!
Plant list is giving “boomer”
Oh man you really planted bamboo? Hah.
I planted some running bamboo inside a bathtub. Houdini couldn’t have gotten out of that bathtub.
The bamboo got out.
The garden gods smiled on us and most of the bamboo eventually flowered and died of old age, still punching holes in the bathtub and leaping over the top. We’ve been fighting a few remaining suckers for, oh, 5-6 years, but it gets a little easier each year. Fortunately the bathtub area was between the street and a cement driveway, so the escaped bits could never get too far. Or we’d have had to join the Witness Protection Plan and move.
Hey op, people are giving you good feedback. Even if they’re giving it snarkily. There is an important difference between non native plants and invasive ones and it sounds like you have at least a few highly aggressive invasive plants.
I did landscape maintenance for a woman who planted “non spreading” bamboo using all the proper procedures to keep it in place. I cut down shoots at least twice a week. They were spreading beyond a 4 foot retaining wall and would’ve taken over the front landscaping without constant maintenance. Whatever prevention you’ve put into place, it won’t last forever and will cause problems for future homeowners or yourself and of course, the environment.
Take care of the invasives now before they’ve established.
It’s a beautiful garden, it’ll be lovely to hang out in I’m sure. And it’s a far cry from a pollinator garden.
Honestly, things are so bleak right now, I really appreciate the laugh.
Nice hardscape work, though.
You’re going to regret that bamboo lol
The stepping stones you laid down, specifically in the fire pit area, did you have to cut the round edges on them?
The ones outlining the outer most part of the circle just before the border.
My dude are you gonna plant a bunch of mint next?
This is really visually beautiful, but I’m not sure about the retaining wall and other hardscape in close proximity to the trees. Pressure on roots, etc, can cause problems for your trees- girdling roots, or root death.
If you haven’t, you may want to have an arborist check on this plan and give advice, as landscapers are often not well versed on tree health, and will happily build hardscape or do tree care that actually can kill the trees.
It might have been a mistake to call this a pollinator garden, with all the non natives, but it is really beautiful and will be quite something when it fills in. That said, I have to agree on getting rid of the bamboo and possibly the jasmine I saw mentioned. Once you get into planting things that are not only non native, but actually *destructive* to wild pollinators and ecosystems, then it’s getting into problematic territory.
Good luck with the overall theme, it’s quite pretty and may have to steal a few ideas from this for the woodland garden I’m trying to build
Bamboo by the fence is crazy they’re about to say hi to every neighbor very soon, painful
Your neighbors are going to be very angry with you when your bamboo spreads to their yard.
I’m obsessed with your all of your flagstone elements, especially the patio. Oh, and the plants are nice, too