Review backyard landscaping plant material list

[2curlydogs]

I'd post the full PDF layout because I know that gives the most information (waves to tree) but it has our name & address on it and it's HUGE.

So I'll try and detail information.  We're zone 5A in SE WI.  Our backyard is complete southern exposure (our house is on the north end of the lot).  It's fully fenced in with a 4' picket fence 150' long and 100' wide. Behind the fence is some easement and then we butt up against protected woodland (hardwoods of oak, maple, etc.).

The entire yard is almost all full sun.  Our neighbor to the west has a mature, fast-growing maple (I think it's a Crimson King, but don't quote me), so that casts afternoon sun across part of our yard.  Neighbors to the east have no shade trees (they love their wide-open lawns here).  We have planted an autumn blaze maple in the east part of the lawn further south than that, and a large-leaf linden in the western part of the yard, also a little bit south.  We have a playset for the small one that we want to give afternoon shade to - there is a Swamp Oak on the plan to do that but it's hard because the playset is paralell to our raised garden beds.  The other deciduous trees listed (the service berry and redbud) are planned for around the playset (again, for some shade) and in the easement (to blend and create height between the yard and the 100'+ trees in the forest).

Because we have dogs and kids, our one major requirement was no toxic plants. The LA had originally put a yew on there but removed it even before I prompted him about it (which seems to indicate he was listening to us).  Also, for the same reason, low-maintenance plants were preferred.  We also wanted to solve some problems with the dogs digging in corners and racing along the fenceline with the neighbor dogs and then softening the rectangular-ness of the current layout (rectangular yard with rectangular deck against a rectangular house and rectangular vegetable garden, etc.) so most of the rest of the plantings are along either the east and west fenceline or deck and house to address that.  The majority of the perennials and grasses are in the half of the yard closest to the house with the larger shrubs and evergreens towards the back and addressing screening issues.

Without much further ado, here's the list.  If he recommended a particular variety, I included that. I could not always find the exact match at local nurseries but have been able to find a very close one in all cases.

• Quercus bicolor - Swamp White Oak 
  Amelanchier x grandflora - Apple Serviceberry 
  Cercis canadensis - Eastern Redbud 
  Buxus - Horizontal Boxwood - Chicagoland Green
  Buxus - Upright Boxwood - Green Mountain
  Juniperus scopulorum - Upright Juniper - Fairview
  Budleia davidii - Butterfly Bush 
  Hydrangea arborescens - Hydrangeas - Annabelle
  Hydrangea arborescens - Hydrangeas - Incrediball
  Hydrangea paniculata - Hydrangeas - Unique
  Rosa - Shrub Rose - Nearly Wild
  Spirea japonica - Spirea - Little Princess
  Spirea x bumalda - Spirea - Neon Flash
  Viburnum carlesii - Viburnum - Koreanspice
  Viburnum lantana - Viburnum - Mohican
  Calamagrostis acutiflora - Reed Grass - Karl Foerster
  Miscanthis sinensis - Silver Variegated Maidengrass - Morning Light
  Panicum virgatum - Red Switch Grass - Rotstrahlbusch
  Pennisetum alopecuroides - Dwarf Fountain Grass - Hamlin
  Echinacea purpurea - Coneflower - Magnus Purple
  Echinacea purpurea - Coneflower - White Swan
  Heliopsis helianthoides - Double False Sunflower - Summer Sun
  Hemerocallis - Daylily - Happy Returns
  Heuchera - Coralbells - Midnight Rose
  Hosta sieboldiana - Bigleaf Hosta - Elegans
  Iris sibirica - Siberian Iris - Caesars' Brother
  Iris sibirica - Siberian Iris - Snow Queen
  Leucanthemum x superbum - Shasta Daisy 
  Rudbeckia fulgida - Blackeyed Susan - Goldsturm
  Clematis - Clematis 

So, thoughts? Any varieties of the plants here that you LOVE that aren't recommended?  Or hate? For example, I know the "Happy Returns" daylily is considered overdone by many....and even our LA pointed that out. he said his point was just to get a re-blooming variety. Any plants on the list that you would suggest subbing out in favor of something else? e.g. the upright juniper for an arbor vitae or something

[treedimensional]

I wish I could see the design.
Your plants sound fine to me- they're common, so readily available. My personal preference is for less common plants, but I can't suggest things off the top of my head, because my ability to memorize the zone boundries for every plant on earth is limited!
Why so few trees?

[2curlydogs]

I'll see if I can strip the design down. We were given the full print-quality version should we ever want to run additional copies of the plan (we have 3), so it's nearly 1G. But I've got a full version of Adobe Acrobat at work, so I might be able to do something. I'll also try and post some photos of the backyard.

Do you mean shade trees? I suppose quantities on the items may help. Hm. 1 new oak, 3 new service berries, 1 new redbud. Then 8 juniper for screening.

He had proposed another maple but I'm unsure on the placement. It feels awkward to me, about 10' to the west of our deck. Especially if we ever decide to put an addition on the house or expand the deck/patio (both possible), the tree would have to be moved elsewhere anyway. So I didn't list that one.

[2curlydogs]

Ok, I was able to save the plan as an image.  Even cropped and stripped down, a PDF was still over 1M.  I attached it.

Some pictures to accompany.  I wasn't trying to photograph the yard but my dogs zooming around it, so they're not the best but they give a general impression The first two were taken from roughly the same spot facing south towards the woods at about, oh, 5pm in June (so you can gauge the light/shade we get from the neighbor's maple).  The first one is the west side of the yard:



This one is the east side. We also wanted to try and screen "the barn" our neighbors put up but that may be hard given it's only about 2 feet from the fence line.


And then this one is taken from next to the slide in that playset, looking back at the house on a completely different grey day this past spring (again, photographing the dogs).

[mouse]

Are those trees floating in the lawn? You might want to design an under planting for them (or just mulch), trees are not good for lawn and lawns are not good for trees. I'm sure TD can explain it better.

Seeing as you have dogs and kids, are there any low-care natives you might have as backup for borders? Bulbs are low-care, but you might find the bare patches they leave get weedy without something else there.

[mouse]

Also, I'm jealous of your space, so much room to play and such a gorgeous backdrop!

[NitaX]

I too am jealous of your space! I wish I had a bigger yard. *insert pouty face*

I adore my Happy Returns. They are bright, lemon yellow blooms and they rebloom profusely. I'm excited to see how my Shasta Daisies perform this year too. And you can never go wrong with the grand lady that is a hydrangea. I love those shrubs.

[treedimensional]

Sooo much turf.
:::sigh:::
I'm a little meh on the design, but the main thing is I'd plant more trees and shrubs. A LOT more. Yes, keep the play area(s) but do what you can to maintain a functioning ecosystem. This design doesn't seem to do that.
Having big quantities of just a few trees and shrubs, you're missing an opportunity to create an oasis with all that space.
And yes to what mouse said about trees and turf being antagonists of one another.
Just say no to Maples. There are TOO many of them. This would never occur naturally. Ask your landscape architect to substitute another genus (native).

[2curlydogs]

Jan 25, 2013 15:59:10 GMT -5 treedimensional said:

Sooo much turf.
:::sigh:::
I'm a little meh on the design, but the main thing is I'd plant more trees and shrubs. A LOT more. Yes, keep the play area(s) but do what you can to maintain a functioning ecosystem. This design doesn't seem to do that.
Having big quantities of just a few trees and shrubs, you're missing an opportunity to create an oasis with all that space.
And yes to what mouse said about trees and turf being antagonists of one another.
Just say no to Maples. There are TOO many of them. This would never occur naturally. Ask your landscape architect to substitute another genus (native).

See, yeah, I was kinda "meh" as well. It's not stunning, but it at least gives a foundation to work from.  There's so MUCH space it feels a bit overwhelming.  It IS a lot of turf (t takes at least an hour to mow just the backyard) which is why I'm like "We need more bedding back here!" You should see all our neighbors.  It's all just plain grass every which way you look.  Our yard is a jungle in comparison to some.

The existing trees are mulched!  The apple tree isn't but that sucker's going away anyway.

When you say a lot more trees and shrubs, you mean varieties, yes?  H wants to grow his own hops (but they're toxic to dogs so I'm not sure where).  My
sister is attempting to grow hazelnuts. I've not done a lot of looking into that, so I'm curious to see how hers turn
out.

My initial thought was on the east side with the existing maple really expand out that bed to envelop the maple and tuck back in to the junipers and create a bench/seating area closer to the playset so H and I could sit there and watch B but that's screened from the neighbors.

We also discussed keeping the full bean bed in the middle there (with the Linden) because I hate "tree circles" and maybe expanding that so it merged into the new bed around the garden (putting in a stepping stone path in the front for more access).  And then, if we kept the bean bed, putting in a seating area there in the curve of that as well.

Oh. And creating a little children's garden in the back corner by the play set for B.  Some fruiting bushes or maybe even a butterfly or wildflower garden.

I'm really not sure what to do on the west side because that's where the dogs race along, so drastic changes over there are going to be... touch and go, I think.  The last thing I want to do is have them tearing thru my new plantings.

Is it spring yet?

[mouse]

I wonder if you want to set aside some space for a sunflower or vine playhouse?

One of our neighbors has a hop vine growing up his telephone pole in the front. I'm not sure how harvest goes, but it's gorgeous. Maybe a trellis over the mailbox?

[2curlydogs]

OH! I'm an idiot. I also cropped out the scale! 1" is 10' on the full-size plan. So most of the beds he's proposing are actually roughly 8-10' deep at their widest. Obviously with the curves in and out it's not 10' in all areas, but in large measure they are.

[housegeek]

Mouse I totally want to do one of those for the girls this spring!!

[housegeek]

How large is your lot/backyard?

[2curlydogs]

Feb 18, 2013 14:00:07 GMT -5 housegeek said:

How large is your lot/backyard?

If you mean me?  The fenced area is 15,000 sq. ft (100 x 150).  The easement is probably another...1500 sq. ft.  So just under .4 acre.

Our property actually extends a bit into the woods out back, but we don't do much with that beyond cleaning out dead/diseased trees, invasive plants, etc. (we work with the DNR on that since it's protected hardwoods).

I've attached a new modified plan with some of the beds re-drawn (well, as best I can using photoshop) and a few other things added (like the neighbor's Crimson King maple) or corrected - mature sizes of existing trees, things like that.  I think we are looking to put a seating area by the existing Linden - maybe a fire pit.  And another one in the extended curved bed on the east side by the existing maple.

I also moved the swamp oak to the other side of the gate, closer to the play set.  If the spruce continues growing at it's current rate (it was roughly 10' tall when we moved in.  It's now well over 20'), I think that'll be too crowded where he's placed it.  I just can't decide if I want it close to the fence or where I moved it (a bit north) to provide more shade on the playset in the afternoon.....

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