Front yard landscape help needed - Chicago (Zone 6)
Y. S.
16 days ago
last modified: 16 days ago
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Patricia Colwell Consulting
15 days agolast modified: 15 days agoY. S. thanked Patricia Colwell ConsultingRelated Discussions
Need help with landscape design for smaller, north-facing front yard
Comments (4)Check out this video by Rosalin Creasy, the queen of edible landscaping. She also has a Web site. Then follow any links from there. You'll find a lot of inspirational photos and resources online. Yaardvark's basic design can be followed, you just need to figure out edible plants with the shapes he has drawn that thrive in your zone. I'm not that up on edible weeping plants, but lots of big shrub-shaped edible fruits and there are also fruit trees that have a columnar shape (column shape) such as sentinel apple trees. Raspberries and blackberry tend to get droopy and weepy-ish shaped (fountain shaped). There are edible easy to maintain groundcovers too, like lingonberry, although they need acid soil to thrive so you may have to amend. I grew bearberry which also goes by the name kinnikinnick as a groundcover. It is not really "edible" so much as medicinal, where it goes by the name Uva ursi. Lots of herb ground covers like thyme and chamomile and some low growing mints. There's also wintergreen but that needs shade and can be fussy. Not too much in the way of edible evergreens although you can grow balsam or fraser fir in some zones and collect the needles for their scent and oil. With juniper you can harvest the berries and make gin. Some junipers are columnar. Some make good groundcover, a fairly common low maintenance option for small yards. Edited to add that you're going to have to be thoughtful about planting your front yard since most edible plants like sun or partial sun, and your sun is going to be filtered at best. Try not to plant things in the shade of other things, so watch where the shadows fall during a whole day at different times....See Moreneed help with plant placement and selection for zone 6 front yard
Comments (9)I presume you are talking about edging the planting bed with a hardscape feature ...? Always, I find edgings that stick up above grade usually add a busy, junky quality to the overall scene. What makes this worse is that they are usually installed in an unprofessional way ... wiggling and undulating a bit, which makes them look cheap and tacky. A much better solution is a flush laid brick, stone or paver mowing strip that is 8" min. in width, installed to smoothly flow (without wiggling or undulation) with the grade. If you're talking about "edging" with plants, I absolutely would not do this. It's not necessary and is almost always (of course there are a FEW exceptions to just about every rule) a visual detraction. Many times it makes maintenance more difficult, too, as one is tasked with needing to keep an edging plant separate from the plants behind it....See MoreLandscaping help!- Front yard zone 10b- Florida
Comments (25)Don't listen to the guy above about ditching the arches, use them to make a new orleans style courtyard out of them, google "new orleans style courtyard". Put a small water feature on the patio. I would then drill in some eye ancor bolts directly into the brick and use some wire to train 5 bouganvilla "20$ each large", Purple, Red, Purple, Red, Purple going up the brick and espalier them off to the brick. "est 150-200$" Take that windmill palm to the left, remove the ciruclar pavers, take the bed about two feet wider, replace with a tan rock to match your house and use fabric underneath "est 50$". I will also say something, so many people put shrubs and trees right up against the house and its a huge no no more often than not. You can use stratigic stuff like cannas, dwarf promgranite, ginger, etc to get the same look of whatever your going for without blocking your view from the house. In saying that, I think you need to have something that gives your house some mystery. That large tree is a huge focal point. I also don't like the hedge in the front which kind of looks like legustrum. I agree with the bottle brush row between the neighbors house out the right side as I think it would be nice to have the privacy. I would go from the large tree to the black driveway and take the grass out from there to the street. Then would add in daylillies, coleous, sweet potatoe vine, birds of paradise, amongst other things. I would also put a couple of orchids on the iniside wall of the arches so you could see them from your house....See MoreHelp with Front yard Landscape design - Amateur needs some help :)
Comments (2)zone is not enough ... we need a location.. big city name ... do you know your soil??? what direction does the front door face ... are the only shade trees the one on the left .... if there is clear sky above.. im not sure i would even call this part shade .. if this is a winter pic.. do you have a summer pic to see such?? winner winner chicken dinner is done.. more tomorrow ken...See MoreY. S.
15 days agolast modified: 15 days agohoussaon
15 days agolast modified: 14 days agolittlebug Zone 5 Missouri
15 days agolast modified: 15 days agomad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
15 days agoSigrid
15 days agoYvonne Martin
15 days agoCelery. Visualization, Rendering images
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10 days agolast modified: 10 days ago
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