Our yard is quite large for suburbs and a large portion of it is waiting for us to build a deck and garage before we commit to landscape, but this corner of the yard has had no love and I finally can get to working on it. Not sure what to do, gonna start with mowing it and clearing the overgrow plants and then seeing what we have.
Any ideas? Slightly sloped so might even out and terrace, maybe paths? I am open to garden beds and have 2 nice metal bird baths too that could find a home here potentially. The area by the house is reasonably shaded but the rest is very sunny.
ETA: Forgot to say we are in Australia, NSW coastal climate.
by HairPlusPlants
5 Comments
You definitely need to address the slope. You may need a French drain near the house so you don’t have water pooling near the foundation
Figs!
You could terrace that slope with some timber sleepers and set up a dedicated “sanctuary” corner for those bird baths.
I’d add a hammock and lie in it. But if you’re compulsive like most Americans, you’re doing to spend months building something and then wonder why you did that.
Hold off on building expensive hardscape terraces or paths if you have contractors bringing heavy equipment for a deck and garage later. You want to use soft engineering here instead. Use wide sweeping garden beds cut along the contour of that slope to naturally terrace the yard and hold the soil. Start by cutting a crisp deep edge around those water tanks and the pump so you can actually service them without fighting the weeds and string trimmer.
Throw those metal bird baths right into the thick of your new beds to give them a structural purpose rather than just leaving them floating in a sea of grass. For a coastal NSW climate you need tough natives that build a layered canopy. Plant massive sweeping groups of Lomandra grasses to lock in the soil on the slope and layer in some Coastal Banksia or Grevilleas for height. Plant them tight so they flow together into a single mass instead of scattering individual plants around like polka dots.
Before you pick up a shovel and start tearing up the turf I highly recommend running a photo of that slope through the GardenDream web app. You can use it to overlay different sweeping bed shapes and plant layouts right over your current yard. It acts as a digital blueprint so you can figure out exactly where the curves and focal points should go before you waste money and sweat on a layout that does not flow.