Backyard Living Space - Sloped in Color
The owners inherited an overgrown, unusable backyard with troubling pockets of rising underground water. This space was transformed into a colorful natural oasis and living space in multi-phase landscaping, planting and masonry projects.
The first phase of the ambitious project was to clear the brush and create a tiered backyard with the installation of a retaining wall to both redirect rain water from flowing through instead of overwhelming the underground water table and rising in puddles. This project created a sloped area perfect for planting and providing privacy to the living space. The upper tier of the yard was grassed over with dedicated areas fora fenced vegetable garden and kids outdoor play spaces. The slope was covered in mulch and allowed to rest and settle for the remainder of the year and into the Summer of the next. A family living space was constructed as a patio designed in herringbone pattern, both as a continuation of the textural patterns indoors as also adding an aligned modern look to the geometric rusticity of the retaining wall.
The second phase was planting the Sloped Garden. This was done in sections, with the area closest to the fenced garden strongly leaning to native and pollinator friendly. Given the colorful nature of pollinator species, that theme was extended to the rest of the slope with repeat planting of varieties of Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Sedums, Nepetas, and Calamintha against foundational shrubbery of deciduous and evergreen Azaleas, Hydrangeas, Hollys and Viburnums.
The third phase was planting the walk through garden leading to the living space. This was the most accessible garden for the kids and the goal here was to make this an Oasis of Wonder to touch and experience. With that in mind, this was focused as an all season Butterfly and Hummingbird friendly garden.
Across the entire space are elements of whimsy connected by garden statues dotted through the space as well as including architectural elements of heights of various plants as also texture and color. A key feature of transforming this space, with the mix of accessible and hard to access garden areas, was to allow natural growth through the focus on Permaculture Design elements - leverage perennial shrubs and flowering bushes, native species that are both well suited for the climate as also self sustaining and spreading.
Want a full yard outdoor scape plan with multiple living and garden spaces?