I'm a renter living in Rhode Island – USDA Cold Hardiness Zone 7a – and would like to improve the health and look of our yard. As far as I know, there has been no professional landscaping or gardening done here in the past decade at least.
The bushes/shrubs are so overgrown and tall that they look like trees, and quite a few of the trees seem unhealthy. One lost a big branch during the blizzard that hit a couple months ago. The ground is hard and shaded, with very little grass. The trees have vines wrapped around them. Any suggestions are welcome.
Goals:
- for the ground to be something other than just hard dirt which turns into mud in the rain (could be clover or anything that would grow, it doesn't need to be grass)
- for there to be less dense shade / less "overgrown" looking
- for the trees to be healthy
- no more "invasives" such as wisteria and bittersweet which have wrapped around the trees
What I've tried:
- -very little overall as i'm not knowledgeable about landscape and daunted by starting. 2 years ago my roommate and I rented a roto-tiller to try and aerate the ground , we seeded some high shade grasses and clover, but it was extremely patchy.
- -pruned the wisteria and vines a bit
Pictures:
- backyard full view
- backyard full view
- close up on dirt/patchy grass
- overgrown shrub
- overgrown shrub 2
- close up of overgrown shrub
- tree which seems half dead but still sprouts leaves in the spring. leaned up against makeshift fence from previous tenant (ignore)
- front alleyway
by dumb71
3 Comments
It may be costly to do everything you want to do. You might consider hiring a landscaper for advice and to check if any trees are in danger of falling, then proceed from there. Is the landlord willing to pay for anything?
Not your property and how long will you be living there? I’d ask the landlord if I could get free arborist chips from chipdrop to cover the ground and remove large and/or dead branches leaning into the yard and over any structures. Beware of losing privacy removing those branches that are in your way. Leave the leaves as free mulch, just sweep paving clear. Keep tidy and furnish as you please. I’d use furniture with wide feet like cheap plastic chairs or Adirondack style so will be steadier on the uneven surface. My slightly more expensive sling chairs have 1×2″ feet and sink in soft ground, so annoying.
Those shrubs are maturing and getting as large as small trees which is perfectly normal. Consider it a woodland rather than a stereotypical suburban yard with heavily pruned shrubs and trees shoved up against the fence with a dominant lawn. You seem to be saving branches? Look into hugelkultur beds, maybe you’d like to plant a fernery on top of one as a garden feature.
If I bought the place I’d kill then remove the vines. I think I see ivy in the side yard? Has to go as well. I’d ID and evaluate health of trees and shrubs and remove sickly ones and consider removing invasive. Suspect many of those trees planted themselves. I wouldn’t remove any leaning branches if healthy but would consider that the garden bed and plant woodland plants underneath. Any pruned material would be turned into a ‘dead hedge’ as critter habitat hoping for fireflies in a few years and there’d definitely be a birdbath in there somewhere. I’d have to build a small paved space to BBQ but other furniture would sit on the wood chip ground cover. That alley is calling out for oak leaf hydrangeas between the trees. The green tufty stuff seems happy. I would ID it and figure out how to divide and replant where I’d like an edging plant.
Advice is- you rent. Don’t spend your own money on it