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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:02 am
Location: San Bernardino Mountains, California

So Dull, Need Ideas

So I've decided the front of our house is incredibly dull and really needs some more color.. and design. This particular area is really such an eyesore to the rest of our front yard. This area is mostly shade as it is under the huge tree in our front yard and during the rainy season our rain gutter normally floods the area.

I would like to do this without spending to much money as it will most likely be a temporary fix until we have enough money to actually extend the patio. Hence why I'm not hiring someone to do it .. even though it might cost less anyway? who knows! Anyway here is the area I'm planning to work on. I want to make a stone path of some sort that goes from the patio to the back gate. Any ideas, suggestions, drawings lol anything would be much appreciated.

View From Front
[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/P1010645.jpg[/img]
View From Side
[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/P1010646.jpg[/img]
View From Patio
[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/P1010648.jpg[/img]

I like plants
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Posts: 133
Joined: Sun May 30, 2010 4:59 pm
Location: Canada

^^^That's a good idea.

bullthistle
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Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:26 am
Location: North Carolina

The plant selection in California is so enormous that I would bother with annuals. Groundcovers, evergreen and blooming just mix in some manure/compost and add some bonemeal. Just drive around some public buildings or large hotels to get an idea for plant material. Thomas Church used ground covers in all his designs. It is simplistic and easy on the eyes.

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rainbowgardener
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Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
Location: TN/GA 7b

MG is right, definitely get rid of the shrub blocking the window.

If it were me I would put your walkway at the front of the space, just behind the big tree. Use that to define a garden bed and make your space into a shade garden. Shade gardens can be lovely.

You have to make a choice though. With the area being flooded in rainy season, you can dig it out a little more put in moisture holding soil, and turn it into a rain garden, with plants that can tolerate being flooded and drying out.

OR you can put extenders on your down spouts and move all that water somewhere else. Getting it farther from the house would be better for your foundation anyway. Then you can plant it as a regular drought tolerant garden, xeriscaping. There are lots of plants for desert shade, including columbine/heuchera, tuberose (wonderfully fragrant) scarlet monkey flower, plumbago, beach strawberry, sundrops, texas red yucca, yarrow, tansy, agastache (hummingbird mint), red hot poker. There's even a fern, the western bracken fern, that is adapted to dry shade, as opposed to the very moist areas most ferns like.


Here's a picture of a Southern Calif. shade garden:

Image

the large flowered shrubs are hydrangeas.

imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

A shade garden sounds like a great idea. What is the soil like there?

Coleus, impatiens, and pansies are not that hard from seed and will give you a lot of color. I still like to have an accent piece like an urn planted with tall Iris, calaldiums, and spilling over edge with lobelia and and ground cover of vinca minor. Since I like things in threes. have plantings of something on either side of the pot creating a triangle

For instance
Flanking the pot with plantings on either side with pink tuberous begonias, or a couple of painted ferns if this is a moist location.

Impatiens or coleus if this is a drier location. I like blondie if you can still find it at burpee. It is the only yellow African impatiens and coleus leaves come in different colors but I like the pink, and cartruese ones. Both of these plants can be pruned and shaped to keep them the size you want.

I don't know if the following plants grow for you.
I like rhoeo as a ground cover and it is good in sun or shade.
I also like bromeliads but they are expensive unless you know someone with a patch that needs thinning. The good thing about bromeliads is that they don't really need to be planted, just kept upright, but they do require regular watering in the cups.

HoneyBerry
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Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State

It does look dull, the way it is now. But it has so much potential. You have a nice lot to work with. Yes, the plant in front of the window needs to be moved out of that spot. I have been working on my front yard slowly for over ten years. I like to do it little by little rather than all at once.

Asica
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Posts: 240
Joined: Fri Sep 25, 2015 1:11 am
Location: California (Los Angeles)

How about using the rain wAter to create rain garden. You extand the sprout next to the tree. You could dig a hole next the big tree and fill in with rocks, the more the better. Around it you create little elevation and plant succulents and natives, there is plenty of those plants that would love shade under that tree. The plants once establish will be watered only with rain water. For the path, just put some wood chips but not directly next to the house, this brings termites.



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