Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Nov 11, 2011 8:37 pm Hello,
Would love some suggestions about what to do with our front yard. The questions I have are 1/ do we need to retain it. 2/ If we can get away with not retaining it what would we do with it landscaping wise. 3/ what do we need to do to deal with water at the bottom of the slope. We have a few drain holes in there on the slope put in by the stormwater guys but am thinking we probably need something at the bottom. 4/ would love your thoughts on what sort of plants and landscaping would suit. The steps were put in by the concreters with their bobcat just to make their life easier but I think we will do some steps there because they are quite functional - ideas on what to make them out of would be great too! Thanks in advance Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics included 2Nov 12, 2011 12:43 am I'll have a ponder and so will a few others. In the mean time check out the Garden Week threads I have posted. They all contain some excellent threads featuring courtyard gardens. Re: Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics includ 3Nov 12, 2011 10:39 am Hi Lee, Looks like a good oppurtunity to put in some retaining if you wanted to increase the amount of 'flat' space available at either the street or your house level. The first question however is what is the difference in height between the street level and the level of the house/path? This matters as it looks significant and generally if its over 1m then the wall needs to be designed by an engineer and have council approval, best to check with your local council as to what they require before making a decision. In terms of retaining materials, a search of the forum will give many options but the more common options currently would be either steel H posts, with concrete or timber sleepers, or stone retaining walls whether it be a faced cinderblock, concrete, natural stone etc. Generally speaking the sleeper and steel route is cheaper, but it depends on the final look your after and what your budget is. What comes to mind for me looking at that space, you could retain close to your path and fill to make a large flat area extending from the street, this would give the option of turf/lawn (if you want it) or to have the area for a mass plantings, with a set of stairs in the middle. (ie the lowest step would be at the front of the retaining wall, going back toward the street but this would require you to retain the sides of the stairs as well). The other option would be to cut back and retain to have two seperate areas at the different heights so you could have 2 seperate garden areas, maybe lawn up the top and your choice of planting down the bottom. However how far you can go would depend on where the property boarders are and how extensive the root system of the tree out the front is. In either case you'll need to add drainage for any of the retaining options. Another option would be to make it a rock wall with the existing slope to stop erosion, and add an agg drain at the bottom to carry away run off away from the front of the house. Hope thats of some help, best advice i can give is work out your limitaitons first, ie budget, council requirements etc then decide on how you want to break up the space in the levels, then look at materials and then plant selection. Our Build - Places Fairhaven 23+ - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28045 Our Landscaping - Belial's Backyard - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45375 Re: Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics includ 4Nov 12, 2011 11:20 am Thanks guys, Fu I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Belial our budget is fairly limited at the moment and I really don't like the ideas of engineers etc for a retaining wall, so if we were to retain it would be a small one. I like the idea of the rock wall as we have a lot of rocks in a selection of sizes out the back we are looking to get rid of so think that may be a real option to consider - probably cheapest and in a way easiest? Do you need to do anything to secure the rocks or do you just plonk them down? I love lawn areas especially for kids but we would not have the kids playing out the front anyway, and to have to mow such a small area would be quite a pain, so I think we will stick to our small patch of grass out the back and just put plants out the front. Its hard for me to visualise how it will look and I am also wondering what we do with that tree there, am thinking it is a moisture sucker! I have some cordilines and a couple of grevilleas I need to put somewhere too. Re: Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics includ 5Nov 12, 2011 12:35 pm If you have a google around there is quite a few different diy sources for building rock walls, but that said unless you have a LOT of rock, building a dry rock wall for the height and length of that area may not be possilbe without buying a significant amounr of rock. In terms of doing it to stabilise the bank, you'd dig the rocks in as tiered layers, and a compated stone/rock base wouldn;t go astray either. The most DIY way i see of doing it would be to cut tiers by hand (pick and shovel) across the bank eg: _ ..|_ .....|_ ........|____ Then place your stones on the tiers, from the bottom up, backfill between with topsoil/organic compost mix so you can plant into the crevices, a quick google should be able to give you some suitable plant options for the crevices. If you want steps, i'd probably go with sleepers made into a staircase. Another option would be to use a geotextile on the bank with creepers, baag has an overview http://www.baag.com.au/?p=652 Our Build - Places Fairhaven 23+ - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=28045 Our Landscaping - Belial's Backyard - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=45375 Re: Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics includ 6Nov 12, 2011 10:37 pm In regard to the frontage from the street, A mass planting of "BigRed" Kanga paws around that magnificent Euc. That will soften the presence of it. Then to the left two Prunus Nigra with those beautiful dark red leaves. Under plant with a few clumps or clusters of Dianella varigata. In between all that, plant some wonderful myoporum as a ground cover. It will look like a beautiful lawn. Carry that down the slope too and maybe plant a bunch of Acacia cognata dwarf varieties. drop in a spoon drain or better still would be to make a dry creek from pebbles that drains down those pipes. Plant some of the fine leafed Lomandra like LimeTuff or Seascapes. or Festuca glauca along the dry creek as well as a few bigger rocks you might "find" somewhere. That way the end result does the most with the least and should in theory look pretty good. Bare in mind I just ripped that off the top of my head and there are no designs or drawings done of it. Maybe some sleepers as steps? Should be straight forward enough to do them from stone or similar as well. Re: Advice on landscaping our small front yard - pics includ 7Nov 13, 2011 11:59 pm Why not turn that whole area into a garden embankment using your rocks, natural mulch and indiginous plants to complement that wonderful gum tree? Stone steps, I would be thinking natural limestone or granite blocks. Possibly an agg drain at the bottom of the slope but there is nothing there at present and doesn't seem too bad, with a permeable garden it may be sufficient to prevent any runoff. Look to Fu's link http://www.phillipjohnson.com.au/ for some great inspiration and ideas. there should be ss cable so you can pull up bore pump for service 1 3162 I recently finished my house and after landscaping, have begun to plan a fence. To be honest its been a bit of an afterthought so I'm after some much needed advice. The… 0 2046 hey there! π so, itβs kinda common for standard drawer depths to be around 500mm since most cabinets use this size to fit the usual runners… 3 20920 |