New front yard & pool
Emma l
7 years ago
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7 years agomazgardiner
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Need Help in our front yard! Please!
Comments (10)Start at the top! The roof looks old and needs re spraying, even a pressure wash with a good shiny finish would enhance. I agree with the above advice, but most of all painting the bricks, even though some see this as a sin, I would paint them bright and white. A georgous bright blue Aqua front door would help with some matching pots either side. I would put in a circular driveway with a wide front entrance. Also I suggest some form of down posts across the front, again painted in Aqua and white. If you have room for a carport match the colours again. If this house is dark inside I would install some form of automatic ceiling windows to create light and brightness throughout. Your garden, well I would give those balls some serious trimming and remove anything too obtrusive. You could always create mounds around the circular driveway and replant using an landscaping expert. Ñot only would this totally transform your home, bring it up to date and add several hundred thousands of dollars, it's worth the time effort and expense! Kind regards, Jo-Anne Aherne of Woollahra omenpeak@msn.com...See MoreIdeas needed please! Front yard empty....
Comments (9)Got a minute? I offer a few words of advice. You have already run the roof drains into a drywell, bravo. Remove the stepping stone shortcut to the driveway. Move the trashcan to the service area, replace your light fixtures with LIGHT FIXTURES. Set up a small table with two or three chairs in the well of the red brick terrace, your outdoor room, for morning coffee with the neighbors as you work on your design and later work on its implementation. Analysis first, then design. Call "Miss Utility" or whatever you call the agency that will send someone out to mark your underground utilities. Have sidewalk chalk and surveyor's flags handy when they arrive, so you can attempt to prevent them from marking the routes with their spray paint, especially on the pavements. Take a copy of the official engineer's plat of your property, that you recieved when buying the property, and increase it to a usable size on graph paper as a base sheet for the information gathering to follow. On a vellum or tracing paper overlay, add all the improvements not shown on the plat beneath - the utility runs, above and below ground, the site improvements, building additions, edges of plant beds, walls, slopes, steps, trees, basketball posts, pool, tennis court, mark it all, so you can later indicate what to remove from the existing. Be sure to include a north arrow and, outside the property a morning sun and a setting sun, with a curving line indicating its daily path. Ask everyone in the family, and perhaps regular visiting friends to list all that they would personally like to see included in your site development plans - no ideas to be rejected from these wish lists, but only a limited few will be included in the first phase of development. Walk around the neighborhood, around your site, make a tour inside the house of all the window and doorway views, upstairs and down. Indicate on your coversheet those views you wish to block, screen or enhance. You are ready now to draw a schematic plan, upon which to attempt to marry all the existing site information with the initial phase of desired activities of the family and friends. a) On a sheet of vellum or tracing paper, bring through the existing engineer's data, the utility alignments. Make an indication, like the squiggle of a hair-roller where you want to block the view, maybe a note like bad view or block view. In similar fashion, a broad arrow pointing toward a desirable view you wish to maintain. Mark an area offsite that indicates a point from which your house is first seen by arriving guests. b) With a series of appropriate-sized circles, mark where you hope to include various activities. Outdoor family cooking and dining, perhaps a different area for entertaining guests outdoors. Mark where the different sports activities might be appropriate, many of which require only an open level lawn area (or sandy beach). If you have infants or infants of quests, indicate a spot you can monitor from kitchen and office windows. Does the husband want a horse-shoe court, a bocce court, a 3-hole putting green to compete with his guests? Since this is an older home, many of these spaces will be defined, but may not suit your family's needs. Indicate some to be changed in phase one, others to wait a few years while you tackle the front yard enhancements. Take this schematic plan to the copy center and have them make 3 or 4 copies for you. Store the original along with all the info gathered for its preparation in a safe place. The copies are to be kept handy for distribution and for your own use. Talk with the large local garden center to have a landscape designer come out to meet with you for a couple hours while you go over all the specific activities of phase one, which might include regrading, new walls, tree transplanting, pavements, water features, whatever. If you have prepared a list of plants and trees that you would be interested in sharing your home with, now or in the future, copy that for the designer as well. Do not prejudge by comments like formal or informal. You are your own site planner. You now need the help of a plantsman and contractor. It will probably only cost $100 or so for the initial planning, as they will be receiving 10-15% commission on what ever you spend at their garden center. Have another coffee in your outdoor room. Good luck!...See MoreFront yard landscaping ideas
Comments (16)As your house is a lovely grey I would consider plants which harmonise with that shade. So consider a range of grey leafed plants such as olive trees (these look great at night as the leaves have a silver backing), wattles, feijoa, euphorbia, lambs ears - an interesting textured ground cover, as is snow in summer. Then a striking deciduous coloured tree or large shrub such as a maple with red leaves, smoke bush, or crepe myrtle. There is no need to build a fence unless you really want significant privacy, shrubs do provide adequate separation. As the home is tall and quite imposing I would also plant three pencil pines neat the front of the building, these will soften the edges of the building and help it relate to the garden. Most grey leaved plants are very hardy. wind may prove more of an issue than sun or soil, I recommend that you look for plants at are labeled 'suitable for seaside locations'....See MoreFront yard landscaping
Comments (6)I like the length of the lawn to the road - it makes your property look bigger The letterbox doesn't work with the period of the home - sorry I would remove the garden bed completely, allow the lawn to grow and then plant trees into the lawn - around 3 depending on the varieties Don't whipper snip at the base of the trees unless you know how to use a whipper snipper and don't use Round Up at the base of the trees - the constant use of glyphosate that is residual will kill the trees in time These comments are based on looking at the photo provided without seeing the site in person. The suggestions are based on a low-maintenance garden but you will need to take good care of the trees, otherwise poor specimens will drag down your property....See MoreEasycare Landscapes
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agomazgardiner
7 years agoBarbara Dunstan
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agoLesleyH
7 years ago
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Emma lOriginal Author