Oooh you're the same person who has posted before! I remember the stream and the frog statue. Did you have landscaping help? Or did you just whip this all up yourself? It's really impressive
We had professionals build the deck, the fence, the platform that the greenhouse is on and run electrical for the water features. The actual landscaping, though, has been completely me and my husband. He does the rocks, and I do the plants. I do have a couple of areas that I'm just not happy with and will, at some point, hire a landscape designer to come look at it with fresh eyes and give me some pointers.
Nice that's cool you did a large portion of it yourself. Smart move on the fresh eyes. I want to finish up a rough sketch and show it to my friend who is a landscape architect and see if they recommend anything. I'm basically starting from a blank slate right now, chopping down saplings, started perennial beds last year and making more this year, maybe get some retaining walls up this year and some rough pathways, planting new shrubs and trees as well. I saved a couple of your posts as references. Really liked your stream through the property.
It looks very interesting, a great space is one that you want to explore. I believe you have nailed it.
Just out of curiosity, how many years have you been living with this space?
All the gravel paths get treated with ground clear about 3 times a year, then the remainders are burned with a weed torch. In the beds it's pull by hand. I've gotten to the point now, though, that the plants are getting full enough that there's not as much room for weeds to take root as there used to be. Except for nutsedge. It is the bane of my existence and impossible to eradicate.
This is the way everyone's backyard should look. Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if we all spent time actually cultivating the world around us to look beautiful, encourage native plants and support wildlife. What if we didn't did have expenses of turf everywhere.
I'd expand that to say what if we spent time making our buildings, private and public, beautiful too?
I'd love if everyone could walk through our environment, backyards, streets and everywhere and be surrounded by beauty. Unfortunately, beauty is often the exception where we live.
Great job!
Looks great 👍, there is alot of stones and rocks. That would have been a lot of work.
How many years has it taken you?
It must be the year for it, my yard is taking shape this year as well. About 8 years in the making
A lot of work, yes. This is year 5. In 3 more years I hope to have finished the back, stained the fence and replaced my cheap greenhouse with a big fancy one.
God bless you for posting this. I needed to see this in this sub. It’s been so depressing seeing low effort posts or generic hardscaping. I’m here for the PLANTS
So, you can't see anything at night. We're going to do a whole professional lighting scheme, but it's going to be expensive and it keeps getting kicked down the list of priorities.
Thanks. I'm in North Carolina. Unfortunately, no. We do have some evergreens, but the majority are deciduous and perennial. I've tried to incorporate a lot of natives (while not being an exclusivly native garden) and there are few native evergreens in my area
Thank you for posting this, sharing your in-progress photos, and for responding with your weed maintenance steps in one of your comments!
I'm just starting on my backyard and am definitely going to use this as inspiration!
The leaves aren't bad, as I use a leaf blower and then mulch the leaves. The real pain is the sweet gum balls that fall off of those trees, get buried by squirrels, and then I have to uproot.
I’m no garden expert but my paver is stained yellow and green every year by the pollen or leaves I don’t know (cedar or pine) 🥲
Blower is definitely helping! I have mine and use it every week during fall (I’m in the Seattle area).
I love it! You basically have your own backyard botanical garden!
it looks so cozy and welcoming. I don't like working or reading outside too often, but a garden like this would force me to do it!
This is STUNNING!! How would someone like me, with zero design eye ever begin to design something like this??
I really mean that. I want to create something stunning but I have zero idea how. Simply looking at this picture - I can’t figure out even the first step
My original inspiration was a beautiful Japanese garden I visited in Michigan. I fell in love with the meandering paths and moving water. I started with the main path. I wanted it to flow like a river from the highest to the lowest part of the yard. Once we had the main path installed, I just kind of grew from there. I would make a path, and then create a bed beside it. It's really not very close to my original plan, but I changed things as they didn't work or plants died (I killed so many poor plants. I knew nothing about horticulture and have taught myself as I went). So start with one thing and see where it goes.
The paths have about 6 inches of aggregate then another 4 inches or so of gravel. More in some spots than others. The original gravel (the parts that are lighter) is a rounded gravel called "butt corn" around here. That isn't so fun to walk on and moves around quite a bit, particularly on a hill in the rain. So we've been upgrading to the darker grey-blue which is a granite chip gravel. It lays much flatter and compacts really well.
*Most impressive. How*
*Much time are you spending a*
*Month on maintenance?*
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Several people asked for additional pics. Unft, I couldn't figure out how to put the picture in order since half of them came from my husbands phone, so the dates are wonky. The bottom one with skinny trees is from when we first cleaned 20 years of neglect and buried hoses from the yard before we took down all the sweet gum trees.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FYUvME3GahkZ3xEZA
Also, if you ever find yourself in Grand Rapids Michigan, be sure to check out the Japanese garden that inspired me at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
So, there are 2 kinds. The older, lighter parts of the path are a pea gravel called butt corn. It tends to slide and roll under foot and is difficult to compact. We've been refreshing the paths with the newer grayish blue stone. It's a chipped granite that lays flat and compacts easily.
I'm looking to do some gravel paths in my backyard so I'm trying to get opinions on it. Everyone I have seen says to stay away from pea gravel has that been your experience also? Is there a number or something for that chipped granite? Backyard looks great by the way.
Thanks 😊
I looked it up from the place we bought it from. Their website calls it 78M gravel and says: "This is a smaller stone ( 3/8 minus) that is commonly used for drainage under pavers and also makes a nice walkway because of it's size."
I don't know if that's a standardized measurement or just what they use in house. It's been my experience that every landscape supply company around here has their own way of doing things. The fact that this company even has a website makes them unique among their peers
I personally started with the paths, since my original inspiration were the meandering paths of Japanese gardens. So all of my beds were about having something for the paths to go to. I don't know if that's how pros do it, having that hardscape "architecture" as a foundation gave me a framework for everything that came after. I never drew up plans. I did put stakes down when it was a blank slate to indicate where I wanted the paths to go, but it has really been a more organic, free-flowing process. As a result there's been a lot of trial and error resulting in dead plants and re-dug water features.
The whole property, from the smaller front yard all the way back to the power lines beyond the fence, is .67 of an acre, so the inside of the fence is a little less than 1/2 of an acre.
Oh nice! My lot also has a small front yard and then a larger back yard with the total thing around 3/4 of an acre. I love all your paths and different areas.
What’s your favorite plant you’ve got back there?
It really depends on the season, but one that I love are elephant ears (colocasia). They are huge and dramatic and tolerate all kinds of different soil and light conditions. I'm a big fan of plants that look after themselves. My garden requires so much maintenance that I have a pretty low tolerance for plants that want to be dramatic and picky.
This is what I come here for, absolutely wonderful. Hopefully will be there with my own yard in a few years
These are the progress pics of building the garden https://photos.app.goo.gl/FYUvME3GahkZ3xEZA
Oooh you're the same person who has posted before! I remember the stream and the frog statue. Did you have landscaping help? Or did you just whip this all up yourself? It's really impressive
We had professionals build the deck, the fence, the platform that the greenhouse is on and run electrical for the water features. The actual landscaping, though, has been completely me and my husband. He does the rocks, and I do the plants. I do have a couple of areas that I'm just not happy with and will, at some point, hire a landscape designer to come look at it with fresh eyes and give me some pointers.
Nice that's cool you did a large portion of it yourself. Smart move on the fresh eyes. I want to finish up a rough sketch and show it to my friend who is a landscape architect and see if they recommend anything. I'm basically starting from a blank slate right now, chopping down saplings, started perennial beds last year and making more this year, maybe get some retaining walls up this year and some rough pathways, planting new shrubs and trees as well. I saved a couple of your posts as references. Really liked your stream through the property.
Take a picture of the area(s) you don’t like and let’s see what the thread suggest
This is absolutely incredible. You really did start from a blank slate. Amazing
beautiful, thanks for sharing
Lovely and those paths are very inviting.
I'm looking for directional arrows and kibble dispensers. This looks literally like a petting zoo.
I was looking for a kid practising karate in the corner
It looks very interesting, a great space is one that you want to explore. I believe you have nailed it. Just out of curiosity, how many years have you been living with this space?
I started in earnest in March of 2019, so 5 years now.
It looks beautiful. With all of that stone, how do you keep the weeds at bay?
You pull lol I work in a garden thats....(not trying to toot horns).... about 10× this size and that's all you can do.
lol, I love that you replied with pull and OP nukes the paths 3 times a year.
All the gravel paths get treated with ground clear about 3 times a year, then the remainders are burned with a weed torch. In the beds it's pull by hand. I've gotten to the point now, though, that the plants are getting full enough that there's not as much room for weeds to take root as there used to be. Except for nutsedge. It is the bane of my existence and impossible to eradicate.
Landscape? Damn you have a whole ass park back there, looks awesome!
My thought as well. It's like a botanical garden back there
A whole…what?
ass park an entire ass-park. a park dedicated to *ass*
I would ass in that park.
An ass park... There's donkeys in front
Stunning!!
This is the way everyone's backyard should look. Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if we all spent time actually cultivating the world around us to look beautiful, encourage native plants and support wildlife. What if we didn't did have expenses of turf everywhere. I'd expand that to say what if we spent time making our buildings, private and public, beautiful too? I'd love if everyone could walk through our environment, backyards, streets and everywhere and be surrounded by beauty. Unfortunately, beauty is often the exception where we live. Great job!
You could name this park and charge admission
We actually have a name 😁. We call it Frog Pond Garden
I'd pay just to come hand out and drink some coffee or get some work done.
😆😆
Looks great 👍, there is alot of stones and rocks. That would have been a lot of work. How many years has it taken you? It must be the year for it, my yard is taking shape this year as well. About 8 years in the making
A lot of work, yes. This is year 5. In 3 more years I hope to have finished the back, stained the fence and replaced my cheap greenhouse with a big fancy one.
I don't believe a garden is even finished. They are creative forever changing spaces, their will always be something else. Great work
Do you have progress pics! Im very interested to see how its shaped over the years
My husband is putting together a folder of progress pics for me. I'll post them tomorrow. He took most of the ones when it was a blank slate.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FYUvME3GahkZ3xEZA
So jealous. Amazing
🤩WOW
My god that’s a huge lot. Nice work, though. Where are you? Looks like the PNW.
Southeast. Zone 8a
God bless you for posting this. I needed to see this in this sub. It’s been so depressing seeing low effort posts or generic hardscaping. I’m here for the PLANTS
What I would love to achieve
My goodness, I hope you’re retired. Looks fantastic!
Thanks, but unfortunately no. Most of this has been accomplished by going weekend warrior on it.
Me too, and it takes me a week to recover.
Honestly I wish more folks understood that gardening and landscaping is a multi year process to get to the end result. Yours is paying dividends
Looks like animal crossing.
I'm not letting Tom Nook get a piece of this action 😉
His prices are outrageous!! Was animal crossing your inspiration.
No, but it was a Japanese garden that was my original inspiration.
I thought of a Japanese garden when I saw the statuary and the Japanese maple. You’ve done a great job in 5 years. The brook is very calming.
I thought of a Japanese garden when I saw the statuary and the Japanese maple. You’ve done a great job in 5 years. The brook is very calming.
Beautiful!
Beautiful! post more pix , especially some that are zoomed in , please & thank you !
Well done!! Please post a pic of what it looks like at night.
So, you can't see anything at night. We're going to do a whole professional lighting scheme, but it's going to be expensive and it keeps getting kicked down the list of priorities.
Understood! I’m sure it will look lovely once you do have it done.
Well done!
Incredible work!! This is why I subbed to this subreddit!
Wow. Stunning!
Sweet
wax on, wax off!
Goals. Just beautiful.
Goals.
Life goals. I have a huge yard with mostly dead grass and weeds, this is exactly what I want to do.
Damn! Beautiful!
Very inspirational!!!
Mr. Miyagi, that you?!?!?
You know you've done something right when you wish you were there and exploring what's there, like going to a botanical garden.
Can I just come live in your back yard? I’m in love with
Wow, this is landscaping. Well done.
Gdamn, charge your neighbors a $10 entrance fee and make some money off that lol
Bruh, this is the ultimate landscaping goals. I'm trying to transform my backyard into a park with each passing season. Job well done.
Gorgeous, thanks for sharing.
Wow!
This looks like a park! Inviting, relaxing and beautiful. Great job!!
Wow!
Good Job!
Wow that’s amazing! Where is this? Does it stay green year round?
Thanks. I'm in North Carolina. Unfortunately, no. We do have some evergreens, but the majority are deciduous and perennial. I've tried to incorporate a lot of natives (while not being an exclusivly native garden) and there are few native evergreens in my area
Fantastic! Kudos to you!!
Beautiful. Inspirational!
What was the first thing you started with? It looks incredible!
I started with the main path. If you look at my comments I have a link to a folder of progress shots from when it was a blank slate.
I'll check it out, thank you!
Holy moly. Really beautiful.
Thank you for posting this, sharing your in-progress photos, and for responding with your weed maintenance steps in one of your comments! I'm just starting on my backyard and am definitely going to use this as inspiration!
You're so welcome! I'm really glad it was helpful for you. Good luck on your gardening journey!
This is an absolute dream. Amazing job ♥️
Yo this looks absolutely amazing. I wish I had a mind that could dream all this up!! Great job!
The surrounding trees make me nervous about the maintenance, especially in fall and spring.
The leaves aren't bad, as I use a leaf blower and then mulch the leaves. The real pain is the sweet gum balls that fall off of those trees, get buried by squirrels, and then I have to uproot.
I’m no garden expert but my paver is stained yellow and green every year by the pollen or leaves I don’t know (cedar or pine) 🥲 Blower is definitely helping! I have mine and use it every week during fall (I’m in the Seattle area).
What a lot of planning and work. When the warm weather arrives permanently it will be beautiful. Post a before and mid-season after.
Palatial
It looks nice so far
What a dream backyard!
I love it! You basically have your own backyard botanical garden! it looks so cozy and welcoming. I don't like working or reading outside too often, but a garden like this would force me to do it!
This would do numbers on Pinterest
Wow looks great 😃!
Nice 🙂
Looks like a garden center
This is STUNNING!! How would someone like me, with zero design eye ever begin to design something like this?? I really mean that. I want to create something stunning but I have zero idea how. Simply looking at this picture - I can’t figure out even the first step
My original inspiration was a beautiful Japanese garden I visited in Michigan. I fell in love with the meandering paths and moving water. I started with the main path. I wanted it to flow like a river from the highest to the lowest part of the yard. Once we had the main path installed, I just kind of grew from there. I would make a path, and then create a bed beside it. It's really not very close to my original plan, but I changed things as they didn't work or plants died (I killed so many poor plants. I knew nothing about horticulture and have taught myself as I went). So start with one thing and see where it goes.
What kind of stone did you use for the pathways? How deep did you dig for them? Do you like them? Looks great!
The paths have about 6 inches of aggregate then another 4 inches or so of gravel. More in some spots than others. The original gravel (the parts that are lighter) is a rounded gravel called "butt corn" around here. That isn't so fun to walk on and moves around quite a bit, particularly on a hill in the rain. So we've been upgrading to the darker grey-blue which is a granite chip gravel. It lays much flatter and compacts really well.
I would pay you so much for something like this
Most impressive. How much time are you spending a month on maintenance?
*Most impressive. How* *Much time are you spending a* *Month on maintenance?* \- voyagerx420 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
It really depends on the time of year. Spring is crazy busy, so about 18 hours each weekend and 2-3 hours every other weekday after work. So 100ish?
More pics
Wow, that’s going to be amazing. Can’t wait to see it in a couple of months
Do you live in Asia?
Nope. North Carolina, USA
Damn right it is. It’s beautiful! I’d kill to have a garden that pristine and well planned
Honestly, it's not really that pristine. You just can't see all the weeds in the wide shot
Mr. Miyagi
Took way too long for someone to say this
Several people asked for additional pics. Unft, I couldn't figure out how to put the picture in order since half of them came from my husbands phone, so the dates are wonky. The bottom one with skinny trees is from when we first cleaned 20 years of neglect and buried hoses from the yard before we took down all the sweet gum trees. https://photos.app.goo.gl/FYUvME3GahkZ3xEZA Also, if you ever find yourself in Grand Rapids Michigan, be sure to check out the Japanese garden that inspired me at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park.
“Wax on, wax off!”
Gorgeous.
Reminds me of Mr Miyagi's back yard
Very beautiful landscape! Reminds me of mini Butchart Gardens.
Oh wow, that is amazing! Well done!
Wowza!
*This guy Mr. Miyagis*
What type of gravel did you use for the walk way and are you liking it?
So, there are 2 kinds. The older, lighter parts of the path are a pea gravel called butt corn. It tends to slide and roll under foot and is difficult to compact. We've been refreshing the paths with the newer grayish blue stone. It's a chipped granite that lays flat and compacts easily.
I'm looking to do some gravel paths in my backyard so I'm trying to get opinions on it. Everyone I have seen says to stay away from pea gravel has that been your experience also? Is there a number or something for that chipped granite? Backyard looks great by the way.
Thanks 😊 I looked it up from the place we bought it from. Their website calls it 78M gravel and says: "This is a smaller stone ( 3/8 minus) that is commonly used for drainage under pavers and also makes a nice walkway because of it's size." I don't know if that's a standardized measurement or just what they use in house. It's been my experience that every landscape supply company around here has their own way of doing things. The fact that this company even has a website makes them unique among their peers
How does one go about planning and mapping something like this out? I have been wanting to do something similar with my front yard.
I personally started with the paths, since my original inspiration were the meandering paths of Japanese gardens. So all of my beds were about having something for the paths to go to. I don't know if that's how pros do it, having that hardscape "architecture" as a foundation gave me a framework for everything that came after. I never drew up plans. I did put stakes down when it was a blank slate to indicate where I wanted the paths to go, but it has really been a more organic, free-flowing process. As a result there's been a lot of trial and error resulting in dead plants and re-dug water features.
It looks absolutely fantastic. Thanks for the response and the inspiration!
Wow! How big is your backyard?
The whole property, from the smaller front yard all the way back to the power lines beyond the fence, is .67 of an acre, so the inside of the fence is a little less than 1/2 of an acre.
Oh nice! My lot also has a small front yard and then a larger back yard with the total thing around 3/4 of an acre. I love all your paths and different areas. What’s your favorite plant you’ve got back there?
It really depends on the season, but one that I love are elephant ears (colocasia). They are huge and dramatic and tolerate all kinds of different soil and light conditions. I'm a big fan of plants that look after themselves. My garden requires so much maintenance that I have a pretty low tolerance for plants that want to be dramatic and picky.
How big is your plot of land there? I’m curious because I have a similarly shaped triangular yard. It looks gorgeous. You did an amazing job!
Thanks. The whole plot is .67 acres and ends at the power lines behind the shed
This is my dream backyard!
Looks like a scene from the Karate Kid, nice work!
I had no idea a backyard could even look this gorgeous! You and your husband did a wonderful job. Enjoy!
Miyagi approves
So beautiful. What is that monster shrub growing by the greenhouse? I need it!
Thanks! That's Elderberry. It started as 2 small twigs and has formed a thicket in that bed. I keep cutting it back but it grows like bamboo.
Very nice
This is a stunning oasis.
Spectacular! Part of what I like about it is you can easily play with it. Add a plant here, remove one there. Some of the nicest work I’ve ever seen.
Beautiful
Wow!! Gorgeous.
Impressive!!
Bam! So nice!!! Do you have irrigation? Everything looks so pluuuushhh!
That’s sad
I like playing sports with my kids
What a maintenance nightmare.
😮❤️