We just bought a home, located in MI. Any advice on how to best utilize these spaces around our garage?
by Annual_Focus
We just bought a home, located in MI. Any advice on how to best utilize these spaces around our garage?
by Annual_Focus
6 Comments
[deleted]
Raised vegetable and herb gardens. Use unfinished cedar (food safe).
First things first get rid of the random bricks and sunken pavers. They are just weed traps and ankle breakers. You need a functional utility path that actually drains water away from your garage foundation. Dig out the muck pitch the soil slightly away from the siding lay down a solid crushed stone base and top it with compacted decomposed granite or clean pea gravel. It gives you a clean permeable surface that stops the mud and looks intentional.
For the plants stop trying to wedge tall stuff against the walls. You have two giant white planes of vinyl and siding that need softening not cluttering. Plant a sweeping connected mass of low shade tolerant natives like Pennsylvania sedge or some tough native ferns along the fence line. One solid texture flowing down the path creates visual calm instead of a chaotic polka dot look. Just make sure to keep the soil and mulch a few inches below the siding to prevent moisture damage.
Before you break your back hauling stone or buying random pots run these photos through the GardenDream web app. You can overlay a clean gravel path and test different plant sweeps right on top of your current dirt. It acts as a blueprint so you can see exactly how the materials and textures fit together before you waste a weekend building something you end up tearing out next year.
Clean up the weeds and it would look real nice without doing anything else.
Depends on what side it faces sun etc. either way it won’t get much so hostas? I would definitely clean it up with weeding and raking, may need new fabric depending on what to plant but something simple, if need more storage they sell sheds that fit against wall in narrow spots. You almost have to treat as two spots due to pole cutting off, wood storage if have a good firepit.
First figure out if there is a utility easement. You don’t want to plant or build anything you value if utility companies will come along and rip it out. Next figure out what you’d like to do with the space. Dead end alleys like these are hard to keep tidy unless you use them.
1. Great spot to keep trash bins out of the way.
2. Put In 2-3′ deep cabinet type sheds for garden storage to keep the garage free of gardening stuff. Choose sheds that are shorter than the fence and less than half the width of the space.
3. I thought a secret garden would be nice but I felt like an eavesdropper. Run a row of the pavers to the back of the area, use the remainder in a mini patio and plant away.
4. Good spot for a potting bench and probably bright enough to bring seedlings along in a cold frame or one of those mini greenhouses.
5. Could use a sun tracking app to figure out if there’s enough sun to put 2′ wide beds against the fence with or without espaliered [fruits.Be](http://fruits.Be) a great spot for perennial fruits and veggies you don’t really want to look at or don’t want kids/dogs pilfering.
6. My dogs forage so I could put up a gate to keep them out and maybe you’ve always wanted an asparagus or raspberry bed but the prickly stems don’t have a place in the main yard.
Once you have a plan repurpose the bricks and pavers as needed. Best to have them next to garage sloped away so rain hitting the siding drains towards the fence. Use free standing DIY trellises so not to damage the fragile vinyl fencing and I wouldn’t put next to the garage. I put in metal fence posts and hung rebar mesh from them. Nice and large, openings large enough to reach through. Definitely use the pavers if you stow trash bins or put in storage so you have a good surface for rolling or dragging.