Praying To Makeover Our Landscaping

bobinfaith

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Staff member
Senior Moderator
Dear Garden Lovers;

About 19 years ago we covered our front, side and back yard with rocks to keep down the maintenance. We put a strong tarp underneath the rocks to keep the weeds from growing.

On the left side of the house is a long retaining wooden wall. It's painted red stain and is 4ft x 60ft. It was originally built for growing flowers but we never seriously grew flowers so it is just remained a long wooden wall with soil inside. Weeds grow inside so every two weeks my 15 year old nephew pulls the weeds.

I want to do a complete cosmetic of our yard but unfortunately am not very creative. A professional landscaper has ideas but are very expensive starting at $10k.

I want a low maintenance yard, ideally with shaven wooden chips or little pond rocks to give the yard a nice look. Getting rid of the old rocks (medium size 2"x2" average) would take up about 2 bins to haul away.

If anyone has innovative ideas about Home and Garden, I would appreciate whatever you can share and I may try to do the work myself.

God bless you all and thank you.
 
I want a low maintenance yard, ideally with shaven wooden chips or little pond rocks to give the yard a nice look. Getting rid of the old rocks (medium size 2"x2" average) would take up about 2 bins to haul away.
You might try contacting some permaculture people, (aka. "permies"), in your area that may be interested in doing some of the landscaping planning/work for a discount, or maybe in exchange for the rocks you no longer want??
Many of them might like to help you out with it because it would also allow them to "practice" their skills a bit... as it isn't exactly like regular, high-maintenance type landscaping. It's something to consider...
 
You didnt grow any flowers??
Now's your chance! Or you could grow a vine to cover the fence, and put in some other low growing plants like herbs beneath it to stop the weeds from growing. The vine could be a flowering variety suited to your region, find out your hardiness zone is and I could suggest a few plants.
 
Grape vines do best in stony soil and they can remind you of Jesus...if its sunny, ie. north facing, plant alyssum at its feet.
Then you will have fruit as the alyssum will attract pollinators. You would need to put some strong wires along the fence with hooks so the vine can be trained on it.
 
You might try contacting some permaculture people, (aka. "permies"), in your area that may be interested in doing some of the landscaping planning/work for a discount, or maybe in exchange for the rocks you no longer want??
Many of them might like to help you out with it because it would also allow them to "practice" their skills a bit... as it isn't exactly like regular, high-maintenance type landscaping. It's something to consider...

You didnt grow any flowers?? Now's your chance! Or you could grow a vine to cover the fence,

Grape vines do best in stony soil and they can remind you of Jesus...if its sunny, ie. north facing, plant alyssum at its feet. Then you will have fruit as the alyssum will attract pollinators. You would need to put some strong wires along the fence with hooks so the vine can be trained on it.

Excellent posts, AtomicSnowflake and Lanolin!

Seriously, I am not creative when it comes to gardening. I like the idea of a permaculture. I'm sure there has to be such an organization here in the Bay Area. I'm googling them.

When we built the retaining wall the purpose was to grow flowers but we never did. That was our plan. I like the idea of vines along the back fence, and the plant alyssums (sweet alyssums?)

We may want to tear the wooden wall down. I forgot to mention it's only 3 feet high. Tearing this down would give us 4 more feet of yard.

This may be a good start. For now our yard is not very attractive and its time to do something about it, after 19 years.

Thank you both, and may God bless you!
 
Sorry I meant sunny south facing since you live in northern hemisphere. Yep permaculture is the way to go...if you going to be staying on there. I was reading a book about how to grow a school garden, and it was published by two san francisco gardeners, one garden was at a school called the alice fu chinese immrersion school. I think it was. In the appendix it had all sorts of local and national organisations to help advise school gardeners. Only thing is I took the book back to the library...
 
Lanolin - Here in the US, many Library systems have on-line options to check out books into an E-Reader, Tablet or Computer. Just wondering if your local library has that feature for persons in the community? It is very popular here and many persons use the program - especially persons with disabilities who can't get to a library without difficulty.
 
Lanolin - Here in the US, many Library systems have on-line options to check out books into an E-Reader, Tablet or Computer. Just wondering if your local library has that feature for persons in the community? It is very popular here and many persons use the program - especially persons with disabilities who can't get to a library without difficulty.
I prefer real books but yes our libraries also have e-books. I'm not really into all the gadgets and technology myself.
No there isnt always an e-copy of every single book purchased by the library. My smartphone I have been using for under a year. I do have one book or rather 66 books on it - The Holy Bible. I still read from my paper copy of the Bible. Its easier for me and doesnt require charging any batteries. But the e-books can be good for quick reference.

I like walking to my local library and getting books out its good exercise. Also weight lifting.
 
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