Front Yard Redo: Design Plan #86

Alternate titles:
Community front yard
Entertaining the neighborhood one landscape at a time
Front yard re-do

Design Plan #86 you ask?

Yes. At least it feels that way.

We've had so many ideas for the front yard. Anyone who's read this blog long enough knows that we change our minds quite readily, and any plan we talk about this week/month will likely be out the window with the current calendar page.

I'm hopeful we have a good idea now. Really. And it kind of incorporates all of the elaborate wonderful ideas we've had over the last year or so.

To begin, Chris and I really asked ourselves what we wanted from the front yard, and the goals of a project. Answers included:

privacy, yet community
edibles
California natives
water-wise
paths
wildlife
raised beds (remember, godawful soil here)
reclaim our front yard from the grass
not feel so exposed while hanging out in the front yard

and most importantly,
to enjoy the front yard

I staked out some areas of the yard we deem "interesting" and "good enough for a patio"







From this wishlist, we came up with this next list of items to incorporate in the front yard:

Idea #1: Short-walled raised beds that outline a patio
Per our lovely CC&R's (Codes, Covenants, & Restrictions - is that a CA thing?), yes the same CC&R's that won't allow us to have chickens, any walls erected in the front yard have to be less than 3' tall. The perfect seating height is 18-20", so that works. The raised beds would allow us to grow pretty, neighborly things (flowers, etc.) as well as sneak in some pretty edibles. Hooray! Seeing how much success we've had in the South Side Raised Beds and how little success we've had with the native soil, raised beds, I'm convinced, are the way to go in my neck of the woods.

Discussion about hardscape material to use for raised beds included:

Cinderblocks faced with the same stone as our house
Verdict: Expensive and facing environmentally excessive.

Concrete bricks that match the color of our house
Verdict: Likely less expensive and leave more room for planting - thinner walls.

This discussion continues...I'm sure.

Idea #2: Low-growing thyme "lawn" enclosed by raised beds
Anyone who's had the pleasure of a High Country Gardens catalog gracing their fingers knows what I'm talking about.

This picture:
I have dreamed about this picture since I first laid eyes on it a couple years ago.

Isn't this the most gorgeous thing ever? No paving. No grass. Ahhhh.

And thyme has the most wonderful smell.

So this is what I'm thinking for the "patio" enclosed by the raised beds.




Idea #3: Garden meadow
Under the California Sycamore, I wanted to take out the grass and plant a naturalized (read: no mow) garden. I don't, however, just want it to look like long grass, but I want to include flowers and grasses as a nice mix of textures and colors. (And then it hit me when I saw...)

Idea #4: Inspired by Sunset Magazine
In this month's Sunset Magazine, there was a Before and After article about a landscape in Oregon that was very ugly, and magically transformed into a water-wise, stunning landscape.
My only complaint about magazines like Sunset is that they crop the pictures way too far in, so you can't see the larger details of anything in their magazine! So my quest began to find the larger versions.
I went to their website to see if they had more pictures. No, but the pictures on the website weren't cropped as far as the magazine ones were. Then I found the link to the landscape firm that completed the project, Galbraith and Associates in Medford, OR. Bingo. Beautiful slideshow of the completed project here.

Below are the Sunset Magazine pictures, each linked to the article at Sunset.com with more information about each individual picture.

Pictures by Norm Plate, article "Low-water front-yard makeover: Lively Yet Low-Water" by Jim McCausland, March 2008.

After / Before

































Thanks again to Norm Plate for these wonderful pictures. I have been a fan for many years, my friend!

I should mention that March's Sunset is awesome. You should pick it up if you live in the region. Veggie gardens, raised beds, water-wise landscaping, San Francisco idea house - inside and out! Excellent read.










So these ideas should keep us going for a while. I will certainly post and updates or changes to these plans as they develop. But I am looking forward to starting soon? Who knows! We might be drinking beer water in our front yard by late summer.