Beginner Gardening: Need help with landscaping., 1 by smithfamily10

smithfamily10 wrote:
Hi all.

I am hoping to get some insight for landscaping in my front yard. My husband and I just got a new roof and after painting the siding we want to do something in this area. It is shaded most of the day gets MAYBE 2 hours of sun in the evening.

We are both completely new when it comes to designing and planning yard things. So we will take all thoughts into consideration. Along with forums I post in and as much research as I can possibly do we are hoping to make this area look great.

In this area there are a few things that we HAVE to incorporate and some things that we want to add. So ideas with these in mind would be great.

If you look at the picture you will see that in the top right is where all the water runoff is for that side of the house. After years of the previous owners just letting it run off it floods there now and sits against the house and porch. Under that runoff we need to put a water container barrel. I will be able to water the plants and use that water for some of the animals.

All of the stumps you see we will be cutting them down and removing them. The tree will be staying. The red line is where we are hoping the edge of the bed will be.

My husband would like to line the outside with thick "pavers" (I call them stepping stones), he said we would put the paper or plastic down in that area and build it up with soil and mulch and he want the whole thing lined with the "pavers". (Yellow line)

I would love to fit in a birdbath if possible.

Any suggestions or links or even photos would be great help. We have a long ways to go in landscaping for this house. Just trying to do one spot at a time.

(Any suggestions on house siding color?)

Thanks all. Can give more photos or info if needed just ask.

According to http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/# I am in Zone 8a : 10 to 15 (F).

The area is about 240 inches (house) x 139 inches (porch)


This message was edited Jun 15, 2015 10:55 AM