HelpfulGardener.com

[img]https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/james2331/Landscape.jpg[/img]


My property is shaped like an L and this is the back. It's actually a lot longer than it looks in the pic, it's about 200 yards from where the pic was taken. I still have a bit more to clear way out back but that can wait.

The Red Lines are my property line and the trees on the right are Thuja Green Giants that are growing at a crazy pace and will soon make a green wall, the ping things on the left are also green giants that I just planted.

anyways, For right now it's just a huge blank canvas that I really don't know what to do with. The Rest of my landscape is "done" and looks great but I'm at a loss of what to do with this area.

I'm in upstate NY (zone 5) it's great soil that will grow just about anything and I'm not afraid of doing lot's of work so give me some ideas please.

oh yeah, this is what the area looked like last year

[img]https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/james2331/DSCF5800.jpg[/img]

and this is what it looked like in the spring

[img]https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i211/james2331/2-1.jpg[/img]

Now I know why I left Upstate. Winters can be ugly without snow. Might want to plant some holly and other evergreens, amelanchair, forgot the spelling, and redbud and then at the base plant spring bulbs, so you get yourself out of the winter doldrums, then make beds with perennials, iris & daylily and whatever suits your fancy.

I'd be very tempted to take out as much grass as possible and replace it with annual and perennial beds (I hate mowing and find grass to be wasteful of resources). Then, take a good long think about what you can grow each season that is both beautiful and edible.

In Zone 5, I'd be looking at Saskatoons, Grapes, Hazelnuts, and hardy Kiwi for backdrops in front of the Thuja (these are taller plants and vines when they mature, and provide winter interest.) In front of those, I'd be going with edible annuals and perennial medicinal flowers. I'd be designing footpaths into that so that one could easily go rambling through the garden.

I wholeheartedly second the idea of a hardscape around your firepit. Not only will it make lawn maintenance easier, it will reduce the fire danger if you get dry summers.

I'd suggest some really showy container plants as well - Ensete ventricosum, for example, is a beautiful and fairly hardy plant that makes a stunning centerpiece in a container garden. And (just because I love to play devil's advocate, and because I know it can be done in your zone) you should look at permanent plantations of Musa basjoo as focal points.