idea for my blank slate back yard

[rainbowgardener]

In a different thread I posted an inspiration picture of fence line plantings:





For reality sake, I thought I should show what it is looking like now:

On that fence line, I have mullein, ironweed, coneflower, coreopsis, black eyed susan, sweetspire shrub, salvia; seedlings of marigold, cosmos, zinnia and others; bee balm, anise hyssop and probably a couple others I'm not remembering. But all of it is baby and not pretty yet. The sticks are just so Jamie doesn't mow them down with the lawn mower.

It will take a couple more seasons before it even approaches the inspiration picture. But come back in 2020!!

I don't have a lot of money, so what I have instead is patience!

[rainbowgardener]

I can come up with wonderful ideas way faster than I can implement them!

So the very back corner (northwest) has a huge old tree. Looks like this:

Those chairs are sitting around a little free standing fire pit, but everything is just sitting there. Grass doesn't grow there at all, because too shady. I've thought for awhile it should have a little patio and gazebo/ pergola. How about one like this:



placed diagonally across the corner, to break up the rectangularity of the yard some more....

Think I could DIY it?

[rainbowgardener]

Thought I'd show this overview of how the blank slate has changed:

that was last Oct

Here's a similar view now:



and here's the quarter circle bed filled. I have seeds soaking to plant in it!

[rainbowgardener]

So I planted the quarter circle with corn and beans and squash. Since the season is so advanced, I didn't do it three sisters style, but planted everything at once. A couple circles of corn in the middle, a double row of beans down each flat side (kidney beans on one side, soy beans on the other) and a row of winter squash along the arc in back.

[rainbowgardener]

So this was that fence line planting three weeks ago:




here it is now:





It has a row of zinnias, a baby sweetspire shrub, bee balm, anise hyssop, annual salvias, purple coneflower.

Obviously has a long way to go yet, but at least you can tell it is there. I will keep planting in it and the stuff in it will get bigger and eventually it will look like a flower bed.

[applestar]

I like how you echoed the circular raised bed that you are building.

...it would be fun if your neighbor would make a mirror image and complete the circle....

[rainbowgardener]

The idea is eventually there will be plantings all along the fence line in some kind of irregular, sinusoidal curve..

I like your idea thought! Unfortunately, at this point that house is vacant, being rehabbed. It has been vacant, being rehabbed the whole 8 months + that we have been here. ...

[rainbowgardener]

update on fence line plantings:







The one at the back (pics 2 & 3) has ironweed, zinnias, mullein, coreopsis, ditch lily, black eyed susan, asters, more ironweed, Queen Anne's lace, jewelweed. The ironweed, ditch lily, Q.A. lace, jewelweed, I dug up from roadsides, not clear yet if all of it will survive transplant.(I always say I'm the only gardener I know that digs up weeds and brings them home! ) The mullein, coreopsis, blackeyed susan, and some of the ironweed came with me from Cincinnati. The zinnias are from seed and the asters from a native plant sale.

Next year I will have a few more plantings and all of this stuff will have filled out and there won't be all that bare dirt!

[applestar]

That looks nice! And you have plenty of room to expand and play as they get bigger and multiply.

[rainbowgardener]

Yup! eventually it will probably be bigger, but I didn't want to set myself too huge a task to start with, especially since we are now into summer heat and the hours I can be out in the yard are a lot more limited.

[pinksand]

You've made beautiful progress RBG! I love your inspiration photo since I'm actually working towards the same goal of lining my fence with gardens to create a more intimate space Right now one side is lined with a straight bed that needs to be re-worked and curved and I have a random little curved bed on the other side with some blueberry bushes (producing for the first time this year!) and random perennials transplanted from other beds... it's a bit of a hodge podge right now. I'd love to create something like your inspiration photo!

[rainbowgardener]

" I'd love to create something like your inspiration photo!"

Yeah, me too! Obviously have a ways to go yet!

It's amazing how many people think that since the fence line is straight, the plantings along it have to be as well. Curved plantings really help break up the box shape of most yards. Here's another picture:

fence line planting 2.jpg (30.6 KiB) Viewed 1299 times

For several years I referred back to a photo I found on line, which has now disappeared. But my description of it will give you some ideas.

"
http://picklemedia1.scrippsnetworks.com ... dium.JPG?0

"It illustrates a lot of nice design principles -- use of curved lines rather than straight (how many people would have put a straight row of plants along that straight fence line, very boring and unnatural), use of a variety of materials/textures, wood, stone, concrete, terra cotta, etc., plus different plant textures, use of mixed heights and sloping heights of plants tallest in back down to the sprawling ground cover in front.

Also this person broke up the space a little, with the crossways divider part way back. Breaking up the space and having things that are not all visible from one spot or in one glance makes your space seem much bigger and more interesting. Put some pops of color up at eye level where they are more noticed, like green bird feeder (bird nester?), hanging basket of purple petunias. False perspective. Notice how the curved bump outs are much wider at the front and narrower at the back? It gives the illusion of greater distance, like the back part is very far away. You can do the same thing with a path, making it gradually narrow a little bit as it recedes, or with repeated elements like a dry stream bed or line of rocks, making them smaller at the back."

When I get to expanding and refining my plantings later, I really want to try the false perspective thing. Even that first inspiration picture at the top of this page shows some of that, with the bed wider at the front and narrowing towards the back.

[rainbowgardener]

So some year, I would love to build something that is maybe a smaller scale version of one section of this:



put it perpendicular to the fence sticking out into the yard (just before the second set of flowers) and grow vines up the trellis.

It would just break up the fence line more, give me a place have colorful flowers at eye level, put some hummingbird flowers up where the hummingbirds like them, create some space behind it that is not so readily visible at first glance, etc.

Of course that would be after we cover the chain link fence with some kind of bamboo fencing roll:

[applestar]

Fun ideas! My stuff will never be formal (...heh... Or so cleanly organized ) but I really like these.