Christy and Hannah went from having a very uninspired and barren yard to a garden filled dreamland. Check it out:
They added a nice wandering path in between rich, healthy gardens to house their new plants, flowers and vegetables. They now have ample space to play with, as well as a peaceful and relaxing atmosphere in which to spend their Pacific Northwest summers.
See more images on their blog, Studio G.
(Images: Studio G)
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
How to Cook Rice on the Stove
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
gorgeous!
very nice- good job!
It's beautiful! Just one thing out of place...get that mulch away from the base of your pines! It's a growing aesthetic trend that results in dead trees down the road. Otherwise, it's a beautiful re-do! Impressed!
Absolutely love this! Well done before/after pics, too.
Why is that, SSINCLAIR? Does it prevent oxygen from getting to the roots or something?
1) Can anyone recommend a good landscape planning book or software for a total novice gardener that has a backyard about twice this size that look the before picture (maybe worse)
2) there is a San Francisco specific book for microclimates that I can never rememeber the name of- can some one remind me?
thanks!
@TracyJ -- it must be "Golden Gate Gardening: Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area and Coastal California" Pam Peirce
um...where did the full-sized pine trees come from?? Teasing...I am guessing that is just a perspective issue with the photos. Lovely in any case...the world needs less lawn!
I can't see the mulch situation around the pines in the photos very well, but overmulching your trees can lead to a bunch of problems. See for example:
http://www.roanokeva.gov/85256a8d0062af37/vwContentByKey/N27VWQ9F458HSMSEN
-- mulch touching the trunk may lead to insect and disease problems in the trunk
-- a thick layer may prevent the penetration of water and air to roots
-- a thick layer may smother the roots
As long as the mulch isn't too deep and isn't touching the trunk it can have benefits such as weed control, increased aeration of the soil, insulation and water retention.
Also, this pdf is a pretty hilarious explanation of the dangers of "mulch volcanoes" complete with numerous exclamation marks
http://www.maine.gov/agriculture/pesticides/library/ppt/Master_Gardener/mulch_volcano.pdf
Sample comments "BAD BAD BAD START OVER!" "GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD JOB!!!"
I'd like to see this again in a year. Any area of landscaping around my house is overrun with weeds in no time flat. Weed control products don't help at all.
Love the wandering paths, great inspiration!
TracyJ, two garden design books I rely on are The Nonstop Garden: A Step-by-Step Guide to Smart Plant Choices and Four-Season Designs and The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer. For California, Sunset magazine should be a good resource too.
Nicely done. I assume the owners aren't interested in pets though. With two smallish dogs, I can only dream of having a backyard lawn for them to play in.
regarding the over-mulch--yes! mulch wide like a donut with a hole in the middle, keeping the mulch at least 3" away from the trunk. the mulch piles against the trunk, and the microorganisms breaking it down don't know the difference between live and dead tree. so they rot it all! also the moisture, etc, can prevent water and nutrients from travelling between the roots and the leaves, and vice versa. The vascular structures that do this are just under the layers of bark.
(I'm an ISA Certified Arborist, and work for an urban forestry nonprofit)
:)
@Caiti- Nice advice, good stuff ot know, thank you!!
I like this backyard a lot and when it finally all fills it it will be even better. Very nicely done.
Lovely1
@TracyJ - best book I've found is "Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry Climates of the San Francisco Bay Area." It's a beautiful book, full color, with many pictures. An incredible resource for plants that thrive in the Bay Area.
http://www.amazon.com/Plants-Landscapes-Summer-Dry-Climates-Francisco/dp/0975323113/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337233482&sr=8-1
I agreewith @WelcomeReality - show me again when the baby plants have grown!
Looks like it HAS been a year based on the dates of the comments. Can we get an updated photo?
Very pretty for folks with green thumbs. I too would love to see it again when the plants have filled in. I bet it is fantastic.
Gorgeous and no mowing. My perfect yard! Also, putting fencing around the ac looks great. Good job.
It's something nice to look at but not really a yard I could enjoy and relax in.
What an absolutely lovely change! I love the little pathways and once the new plantings have matured and grown together more, it will be a different looking garden once again.
Really like this....it's pretty inspiring!
The first picture isn't really a before - they have already started pulling out stuff. And the second picture isn't a true after - I'd like to see it after a season of growth.
That said, what they've hired Tacoma Urban Gardener (I went to look at the linked website and they've changed their name and have a new website!) to do is really nice. And if you look at their before and after pictures, they have an updated picture of the garden three years in.
http://www.urbangardenerllc.com/services.html
So. Yeah.
What a fabulous job you have done! It looks great and in a few years will be absolutely heavenly!
Another example of lazy reposting without any follow up- twice in one week. Thanks to sciencegeek for doing some simple follow up though. What's up AT?
@kastani, I'm right there with you. I thought, wait, I've seen this on Apartment Therapy before, haven't I? Glad to see I'm not having crazy deja vu moments. Wish they'd at least acknowledge these are reposts/"from the archives."
I've been annoyed at the recycling of posts, but the "before" picture still intrigued me enough to come and take a look at the "after" and then dragged me through some websites to find the actual "after" and to find out who actually did the garden.
I am disappointed that before reposting someone didn't try this. Of course the person reposting might not be someone who gardens.
Not only is the post recycled, the source listed as Christy & Hannah's blog belongs to someone else. And from the few minutes I spent looking over Christy & Hannah's actual site, I noticed that this isn't even their backyard, but a client's backyard. Did the person who wrote this post spend any amount of time looking over her sources, or was this a last-minute, "rush to beat the deadline" post? Apartment Therapy has a lot of really good posts, but it's the shoddy, slapped-together posts like this one that really bring the other ones down.
Not only is the post recycled, the source listed as Christy & Hannah's blog belongs to someone else. And from the few minutes I spent looking over Christy & Hannah's actual site, I noticed that this isn't even their backyard, but a client's backyard. Did the person who wrote this post spend any amount of time looking over her sources, or was this a last-minute, "rush to beat the deadline" post? Apartment Therapy has a lot of really good posts, but it's the shoddy, slapped-together posts like this one that really bring the other ones down.
Not only is the post recycled, the source listed as Christy & Hannah's blog belongs to someone else. And from the few minutes I spent looking over Christy & Hannah's actual site, I noticed that this isn't even their backyard, but a client's backyard. Did the person who wrote this post spend any amount of time looking over her sources, or was this a last-minute, "rush to beat the deadline" post? Apartment Therapy has a lot of really good posts, but it's the shoddy, slapped-together posts like this one that really bring the other ones down.
Great job!!!