A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Wild Out Back HELP!

The Wild Back...The area starting with the big tree to the horse stable is the place I want to try to landscape this spring..My 6 ft fence will be extended from where it is to the first big tree...Then, because of the trees I will be pounding metal fence posts and running hog wire along the lot line which is between the trees/thicket...The mess you see on the far left of the picture is my neighbors junk...<not to say that I do not have junk on my side too>>> I want to plant English Ivy along the hog wire fence so it will grow up and make a evergreen barrier to hide my neighbors junk.





The plants I have that I will be moving from my front yard to this area are as follows...

Hosta 10 LARGE plants <can be split>

2 Red ground cover roses

Day lily 10 large plants <can be split>

Tiger lily <The OLD kind> 10 plants <split last year cannot be split this year>

Black Eyed Susan 10 or more plants...

Minature Daffodils..LOTS

Regular Daffodils LOTS

Red Tulips LOTS

IRIS purple 20 <the OLD KIND>

Any Ideas on how I should arrange these plants or other plants I should add??? ROCKS?? etc...???

The area does have some OLD Honeysuckle that I want to try to save...

And I may add some white dogwoods and redbuds to the mix...


The area is 30 ft long and will be about 8-10 ft wide.

I wasn't really sure of the tree placement. Start small and increase the size every year.

Slowly increase your shade and decrease your lawn. It would be really neat to have woodland wildflowers as your groundcover. With the sun lovers at the edge.

I like paths and I love vistas.

one possibility

WOW Rue THANKS BUNCHES!!!!!!

I want the garden to be just on the left side though. Can you redesign it to be just on the left. Is that rude for me to ask you to do that??I have to be able to drive a truck through the side that is grass. For my horse and to get to the back of the property.

I have access to some driftwood...Do you think adding driftwood to the mix would be too much?

It is cloudy today..I will try to take more pictures of the area tommorrow.

There is a Cat Cemetery in that area too. 3 of my cats are buried back there...I have the spot marked with a 2ft tall stone angel.

I also have a 2 tier metal (electric) bird bath that I could use back there.

Be sure to keep us onlookers posted, Oui...
Judging by your pictures, that's one ambitious goal you have. I discern a Capability Brown type
approach you have in mind for your backyard.
click the link for a bit of inspiration:
Lancelot "Capability" Brown[/b]
Best wishes and... [b]Happy Ground Hog Day !!!

LOL, no it's not rude. I wish I could see it in person.

I have a confesion: Whenever I am in someones yard I am planning in my head what I would do if it was mine. Even while I am carrying on a conversation with them!! Sometimes I go home and draw it up, the people never know!!

Driftwood would be wonderful, escpecially in the shade when it gets mossy. I love moss.

The plan I did was for a garden 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. The path is just a tiny foot path.

I'm not familiar with some of your plants so the shrubs and trees might be out of scale, drawn too small. AND I have no training in this area. I just have ideas.

Here is another thought:

How much do you use the drive? Could it double as a main path? The drive could wind though the garden with smaller foot paths off of it.

AND the paths could still be grass. I colored it grey on the picture only because I use pea gravel on my paths,

The more garden, less mowing, when the leaves fall they could just lay there, but I do rake the paths going through my woodland garden.

This picture might help, I drew in how the canopy of the redbuds might look and if you used an upright growing yew.

redbud canopy

Alabama Azalea R.alabamense

Rue: Well it kind of smells like horses back there.
<smile> No matter how much I muck and lime.

So I was not wanting to make it into a sitting area...Just nicer on the left edge.

My property need TONS of work. I am just working on the evil hill out front and this area, and I am adding some plants and trees to attract birds. I was going to make a huge meadow of lavendar too but I think I am going to wait til next year.

I can use your ideas though...I can just leave out the right side.

THANKS!!!

The azaleas are pretty neko..I am not fond of Azelea for some reason..not sure why...I had a bunch at my house in VA that I just left grow wild..They are actually pretty that way...I had wild azalea on that property too..I wish I would have dug some up and brought them here...<<sigh>>

You can kind of see my horse in the first picture on top.


Here he is....

I have my pastures sectioned off with fencing and gates The front pasture never has grass..<sigh> You can see the beginning of the first pasture in the first picture on the beginning of this topic.

The second pasture is mixed fescue and the back is bermuda.

My access road runs along the fence line that you see all the way to the back..The entire left side of my property is pretty much wild with large trees and thicket...<<sigh>> See what I mean by "my property needs lots of work"


*I resized your picture so it would fit the page better - afgrey

I think I have found some other flowers that I want to add to the mix...

Wild Snap Dragon which grows tall and is pink. <getting it from Jackson & Perkins>>

and lavender

and Crystal Blush Calla Lilies and Pink diamond Calla Lilies..

Do you think that is too much color??

Okay here are some more pictures...Starting with the big tree, which is a black cherry. Again the JUNK on the lfet is on my neighbors property. And I am going to cover it with a wire fence with English Ivy growing over top to hide my neighbors junk collection.






MORE Pictures in next message..

Yes I know I have my own junk. I hope to have all my junk removed within the next three days. And all the weeds and unwanted plants removed.

I am going to stain the horse stable a dark hunter green too.

LOL!! Pretty horse and pretty stinky back there then?!?! Yes the sitting area needs to be up by your house. You can still have the vista from your house and as you walk or drive along the drive to your horse.

Color is good. You have enough space so you could really make big groupings of color.

Maybe your birdfeeders should be closer to the house so you can enjoy the birds from inside?

You lucky thing with all that manure!!

neko that azalia is beautiful

flowers can be planted along the side in front of and tucked under the shrub/tree border. Planting the flowering trees and shrubs, the spot will be a knock out!!
another plan

We are here at the same time!!

The stable stained green would be really nice.

I love the lichen on the trees.

Is english ivy invasive in your area? Oh, how about virgin's bower it is a native clematis. AND the scent in autumn is out of this world!!!

Evergreens would be good. Can you grow yews, holly, hemlock all would help screen and will grow in the shade.

Are the blue tanks yours? We need some garden junkers in here to tell use how you could use those. Like make them into a bench like you would a huge log. LOL!!

No the blue tanks are my neighbors..I don't know what he is doing over there...There is cinder blocks, tanks, old tractor wheels and other misc. JUNK..My neighbor is sensitive about his junk..although he never does anything with it..He is saving it for something..<insert eyeroll here>

I knew I would do this if I got near a Nursery or Wal-Mart...I went out and bought some more flowers today...I WAS suppose to be meeting a friend for lunch..I plotted to get there early so I could look at the plants at Wal-Mart which is near the Resturant we were suppose to meet at...<sigh>> Here is what I bought..



Top left to top right

Calla lilies 8 plants <bulbs> White with speckled leaves, blooms in late spring,height 24" Shade to part shade.

12 Dutch Iris' 12 bulbs, purple and yellow, blooms late spring, height 20", full sun.

7 Erynginum, purple, exotic flower, blooms All summer, height 24-36" Full Sun

12 Gladiolus "Wigs Sensation RED", blooms summer, height 48", full sun to part shade.

Second Row Left to right

3 Day lilies "Little Missy" Fuschis exotic flowers, blooms summer, height 12-30" Full sun to part shade.

2 Agapanthus, purple, blooms Summer, height 36" full sun to part shade.

2 Tricyrtis, White with burgandy speckles, exotic flower, Blooms summer, partial to full shade, height 24-36"

12 Gladiolus "Blue Isle" Blooms Summer, height 48" full sun to part shade.

3rd row Left to right

25 Zephyranthes, Pink, blooms summer, height 6-12", full sun.

4 Bleeding Hearts, Red, blooms spring to first frost, height 36", full sun to part shade.

30 Acidanthera white, blooms summer, height 18" full sun to part shade.

Not pictured: 3 Tiffany rose plants (pink)and 1 rose tree..Olympiad (red)


After I get it cleared out I am going to decide the shape. I am thinking straight along the lot line on the back but some kind of curved edge on the front. When it is all cleared I am going to officially measure it..

I have now complicated the planning by adding MORE flowers..

I could fill the back in with evergreens and holly (holly attracts birds) Then put the flowers in front. The ground is pretty uneven back there too. After I get it cleared I will be able to see exactly how uneven it is..It could be that the area is a dumping ground...I will find that out when I start digging...No kidding I found a 1940's toy fire truck buried near that area... in the old days the farmers would just pick a spot on their property and dump all their garbage..

When I get it cleared I will put up more pictures..Thanks for all the help ya all.

It is going to be beautiful. The more flowers the better. I like full beds like the English gardens.

I have never been to europe but I guess German gardens have ground or mulch around each grouping of flowers. The English let their plants spill into each other.

My theory: if it is not planted something will grow there, like weeds!!

I think that is a good idea for the straight edge along the back and curved in the front.

Yesterday it was 50, today it is snowing and we have an inch already expecting to get a few more. I HAVE spring FEVER!!

Neko Nomad gave me a site link that has some NICE pictures of English Gardens and more...

http://www.gardenvisit.com/b/brown1.htm

I have now turned my second bathroom into a bulb/plant nursery. I have a huge Jacuzzi tub in there...It is now filled with pots full of nice new dirt and bulbs/new plants.

I went out today and bought a plant light for that room, so the babies will be happy and grow.

I am planning on leaving the light on all the time..Is that right? or do I have to turn it off sometimes???

NOW I am thinking of painting a Muriel on the stable wall that makes it look like the garden continues..Oh BOY...

What is lichen???

My backyard started as an empty patch of turf -- no fence, no nothing -- but by adding shrubs,trees, and perennials over the years the lawn has now become a green panel surrounded by three borders. Hopefully the back will become a walled in courtyard, with yews, lilacs, and privet providing privacy to this little subdivision paradise.

But this is small scale, miniscule compared to what you're planning. By all means keep a photo journal of each development & share the fascination of watching your garden take shape.

Lichen is the light green stuff growing on the side of your tree, it grows on rocks too. It makes gardens look older.

Beautiful backyard neko. Isn't that a hosta behind the tree. Hostas are wonderful, very cool fall color!!!

hosta sieboldiana

What kind of Hosta is that Neko?? My Hosta's are Gold Standard. I REALLY love the Angel Blue..Because of the large trees in the wild out back area I will need some shade plants..I was thinking of adding 1 or 2 more types of Hosta or some varieties of ferns.

This site has some beautiful pictures of hosta gardens on the first page of it's online catalog.

http://bridgewoodgardens.com/

I also found "The Hosta Library": There are A LOT of pictures there...Now I need to try to pick an additional hosta for back there..

http://www.hostalibrary.org/index.html

Then I need to decide on the type of fern to add..

Oh Boy