Name: Jane and Justin
Location: Oakland, California - Oakmore Neighborhood
When we bought our house in 2006, it wasn't because of the back garden. Picture a mess of tangled weeds, a steep hill upwards, broken red concrete patio chunks everywhere, and fence holes so big our 90 lb. dog sailed right through them.
We were no strangers to DIY garden remodels and took the project on enthusiastically, but this — this was nothing we'd seen before. We found soil so thick with clay and poorly drained that it was a wonder anything could grow in it. But surprisingly, the top five most hated invasive non-native weeds in the area (Algerian Ivy, blackberry brambles, oxalis, wild onion) were growing profusely.
We mistakenly dug into rat nests and quickly discovered (the hard way) that we were a major junction point for the Skunk Superhighway. We rented a jackhammer and cracked out the remaining concrete patio, only to recall that we live up two flights of stairs. Getting all the broken concrete down the stairs and out of our lives took creative thinking and lots of Freecycle-ing.
Since we couldn't buy concrete pavers locally in the dimensions we wanted, we hand-mixed and poured each paver individually, which when you consider that we only had four molds and needed something like 50 pavers, took a really long time since each paver needed to set up in the molds for three days. In a fit of foolish self-reliance, we also created and hand-poured the concrete gas firepit ourselves. It cracked the first time we lit it up. Leave that job to the pros...
Oh and doing french drains yourself is also not advised.
But that's not all — mid-project, we discovered I was pregnant (surprise!) and I spent the next nine months wondering if mixing concrete by hand and going "hammer time" with a jackhammer would somehow affect my unborn child (surprisingly, no studies had been done on this). He's fine, by the way.
So, with me out of commission, we were down 50% of our labor force and we were still knee deep in broken concrete. We brought in a carpenter friend from the east coast who helped us build our deck and pergola, and the rest of the plants went in after our son arrived.
The whole project took about a year and a half to do. But of course, as with any garden, the work is never truly done. We've had a hard time getting plants to grow in the clay soil and have been planting species with tough, burrowing roots to try to break up the dirt. Then we pull them out and replace with compost that we make ourselves. It's been marginally successful — a work in progress.
It's been a little over three years since we finished the big work and we are thrilled to say we use this "room" all year long. We live in a 1950's mid-century style home and even with our open(ish) floor plan, the yard is definitely the largest, most welcoming "room" in the house.
Every party we throw ends up in the backyard. We get creative with the pavers and make a little tee ball diamond out of them with our son, we now have a raised bed for vegetables and herbs, and our geriatric dog spends hours warming herself in the sun out there.
Jury's out if we'd do it all over again, but having a peaceful garden is something we now know that we wouldn't want to live without.
Thanks, Jane and Justin! Beautiful job.
Originally published June 6, 2012
(Images: readers Jan and Justin)
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I'm doing pavers like that in part of my yard, too. Thanks for the inspiration. This yard is beautiful.
Kudos to you for all that hard work. It's beautiful. What a great space.
It looks wonderful! I absolutely love the pergola, and we're about to have similar concrete slabs installed in our backyard as well. Thank you so much for sharing!
Very nice! You will enjoy that for many years to come. :)
So gorgeous! I love the Zen feel and the multiple levels -- kind of a "loft" garden! Bravo!
Beautiful backyard, and a really hilarious write-up to boot. I laughed out loud a couple times - great that you can look back on the long haul with a wry sense of humor about it. It looks like it was worth it! :)
Wow! The satisfaction factor on that must be atmospheric. Job well done. Had to laugh about the skunk superhighway, we're on an offramp ourselves.
So wonderful, so inspiring! We are similarly saddled with thick clay (and we have digger bees rather than rats nests!), so I am really curious to hear about what you planted with deep, burrowing roots to break up the soil.
Well-written account of what sounds lke an arduous project. Your garden is lovely. A few aspects of it seem dangerous for a small child, but I guess he's big enough now to be past that.
I once had a yard of dense clay subsoil with little or no topsoil. I topped large swaths of it with hundreds of cubic yards of composted steer manure and forest mulch, over many years. The first year I doubled dug the manure in and topped with mulch, and planted out hardy, strong-rooted plants. Every succeeding year I added another layer of manure (scratched in) around the plantings and topped with mulch. I maintained that garden for eight years and by the end had a thick layer of gorgeous loam established. It just takes time. Don't break the tilth of the soil after the first tilling.
call me stupid but, how do you mow the grass between the pavers? Or maybe you don't have to??
and, absolutely beautiful! And that you can use the space year-round...Makes me (almost) want to move to Oakland! We have a huge beautiful yard in San Francisco but rarely get out there, sigh.
Massively better!
Beautiful! Great write-up, too.
Can you tell us what is growing around the pavers. It looks like clover to me.
That turned out great! It really utilizes the space and enlarges the feeling of the home. I'm in a pretty small mid century home too and one can't underestimate the importance of outdoor space. It was worth all the work and you never know what you'll find as you go along. I love the steps going up to the terraced portion too.
I salute all your hard work. It turned out beautiful.
It's just beautiful. We also purchased a home in Oakland with a backyard with pink concrete pavers, a graded portion of the yard filled with oxalis (and mint!, while some people love it, it's very difficult to get rid of it), clay filled soil and no ability to get any machines in or out of the backyard, hence everything has to be done by hand. So, that being said...i feel your pain- but wow, looking at your yard- it's so wonderful. congratulations!
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE what you did!!! Our house has also has a steep hill in the back with clay and rock filled soil. Our grass died in no time and now it's completely overtaken by MONSTROUS weeds. I am definitely using your yard as inspiration. GREAT JOB!
This is absolutely beautiful, congratulations !!!!
I personally would have used fewer pavers... but overall I really like this, and if you prefer more pavers than grass then rock on!
Fantastic results! Usually these backyard re-dos just look like nature threw up all over lawn furniture, but your's looks well-considered and classy. Well worth all that effort!
Wow what a vast improvement! I really like it. Well done on your hard work too!
Clay is tough to deal with. In some areas, I had good topsoil trucked in. In my veggie patch, I tilled in oodles of peat moss and composted humus. Then in the fall I layered leaves over the whole thing and topped with humus or peat moss. It degrades over the winter. Lather, rinse and repeat. Finally, I built some raised beds.
I couldn't possibly manage the grass and paver situation. There'd by grass clippings building up in the corners because I'd absolutely refuse to vacuum them after mowing. Then the grass growing along the edges would bend down under the blades of the mower and it would look terrible. I'm not sure hos this is maintained to keep this look.
It's pretty but screams high maintenance to me.
The rest is beautifully thought out, I love the efficient use of the small space...congratulations on reworking this challenging spot, it looks beautiful!
That's it! I'm going to turn my weed-rich hillside backyard into a neat, modern, zen one like yours! Thanks for the inspiration!
@veslabeachgirl : you can get an attachment for your mower that collects the clippings. Better yet--and even lower maintenance--here in Europe, many people have robotic mowers (think Roomba) that also suck up the clippings. Problem solved!
Wow! Beautiful! I think I need to throw back a beer just thinking of all the work that went into that, but truly it ended up gorgeous and surely well worth the blood, sweat and tears.
Thanks for all the kind comments, ya'll. On what we planted, again, things don't tend to thrive in the clay, but we did plant a lot of New Zealand Flax, which did a good job of breaking up the clay. Also, my husband is rather Type A, so he didn't mind mowing the grass with our little rotary mower and then getting the edges with a weedwhacker, but three years later, even he has grown tired of maintaining it so I'm actually out the door right now to see if I can find a low maintenance ground cover to replace the sod between the pavers.
Also, I was remiss in mentioning in my story that the inspiration for this redo was a design that was created for us by a very talented (and handsome) landscape designer friend of ours, John Hykes, who occasionally does design work for people in the area in his down time from his regular job. So if you're looking for some help...John's the man!
I think it's gorgeous but I have something similar in my yard and I have to say that weeding is a constant and major pain. So one thing I've done is to replace grass with creeping thyme which is a great ground cover, seems to crowd out weeds, and can be trimmed to look as crisp as grass (or I'm having a party and want that geometry to stand out) or left shaggy to help soften the look of so much concrete (my preference for everyday).
Very nice!
Huge fan. Love the mix of organic and geometric.
I would also suggest creeping jenny. It will grow anywhere and I personally think its beautiful. Good luck, your space is gorgeous and well worth all of your efforts!!
I would also paint the porch, stairs, and fence white to compliment the house. I would also put topiaries in the planters by the door. For the blank space on the wall, I'd add some lighting, a clock, or a solar powered fountain. When the fountain that is in the fountain that is in the center of the yard is not in use, I would cover it with a cousioned cover. One that can be locked in place so that there are no mishaps. This can provide extra seating on days when it is not in use. I think I would have landscaped the slope in the backyard differently also. I might have added a waterfall that flowed from the top to the bottom and into either a hot tub or a lap pool that stretched the length of the bottom of the slope. I would also cover the back porch area with a lattice of some sort and drape it with a flowering vine that is indiginous to that area. I would also make sure yard tools were put away and the waterhose was kept covered with something decorative.
To add to my previous post: If a hot tub or a lap pool is added, many companies are offering covers for them that are so strong that they can hold many people. They are made from the same material that cruise ships cover thier pools and use them for extra seating areas or dance floors. This can give you many options when entertaining.
You guys had to work hard, but it shows. Lovely space.
You guys did an amazing job. Congratulations! I'm wondering how you decided what to do where? My wife and I have a big square plot of land and the potential feels endless, thus making our decision of what to do with it more difficult than one would think.
Any suggestions on where to get ideas, how to sift through them, and how to decide what will be best for our back yard?
Hi Whit: Honestly, we worked with a landscape designer friend to get the general layout figured out. We knew what we wanted so we did drawings together and took it from there. But as far as how we came up with our inspiration, the main source was Sunset Magazine and some garden blogs. I don't know where you live, but if it's in the West, you can get Sunset at any grocery store. Otherwise, you can look them up online.
Beautiful space!
Fantastic redo. I bet that was a LOT of work, but what a great space for everyone to enjoy. You should be proud of yourselves!
Wow this looks really good. Sounds like it was a lot of work but well worth it!
Anything with a big taproot. Comfrey works. The best thing you can do is just keep adding organic matter. Anything organic: chopped up leaves, compost, aged manure/straw, sawdust (thought that takes a while to break down), the leaves of weed plants (but not the seeds!). Just keep getting that organic matter in and eventually your soil soil will have some tilth.
Beautiful work! And I enjoyed the way the story is told. :-)
I hear many varieties of mint are excellent groundcover. There are species indigenous to many regions and planting zones. And you may not have to mow a naturally short-growing species EVER.
I was so delighted to see a post regarding a home in Oakland -- and right in my neighborhood, too! We've got a smaller space and a retaining wall rather than terraced hill, but are also a stop on the local skunk highway! We're trying to decide how to re-imagine our space but are a little overwhelmed by all of the choices and the idea of finding a mix of features that appears cohesive. I think you absolutely *nailed it* for your yard and my next step after commenting is to look up your landscape designer friend! Thanks so much for a beautiful post. Well done, neighbor! :)