outdoor   landscaping   DIY  

Okay.  I am just about at a loss as to what we are going to plan for the yard, and to have all the giant holes dug for the tiny bushes by planting time, I need to start making decisions and marking the locations soon.  ( Yes… it will probably take me a month to dig all the holes big enough. )

We got a mix of bushes that should live up here with the thought that if one type doesn’t make it, at least we have a couple other types that might survive.  Like… “Don’t put all your bushes in one basket.”

So while my first quick attempt at photo-shopping the yard with pictures from the internet versions of the “perfect specimen” of bushes and hastily cropped photos of the yard was pretty wild:

 

Later, I decided that adjusting the clippings to the colors that they would more likely show in our yard has helped at least get a better picture of the design ideas that are possible…

Idea #1… Pattern of Bushes.  This spreads the border colors along the edge and keeps one end from looking over-weighted, however, if one bush dies in the pattern, it will result in some color holes that might look a bit funny later.

 

Idea #2… Slope by Size.  This gives the bushes of each color an area of their own, and hopefully if one dies the others in that area could fill in to cover for it, but the distinct grouping of colors makes me think things would be a bit funny looking even if all the bushes survived to full size.

 

What I would really like to do if I was super-rich, would be to buy several dozen more bushes and smash them all into the border randomly so that whatever survived would take over and the random color mix would never really look out of place if a few bushes died or even all of one type.  Of course, that would cost well more than I can justify on landscaping, especially when we are planning several other yard elements like the picnic/sunshade shelter and/or a screened porch somewhere next to the house.

Even more distressing than bush placement is determining where and how to permanently place the grill, and whether to create a weather guard over the top of it or not, and how much wind blocking on the sides, etc.  (Why permanently place a grill rather than pulling it out from the wall, uncovering it, and then needing to cover it, put it back against the wall, and sometimes stack a brick or giant rock on its base to keep it from blowing away in the up-to-100-mph gusts of wind that we get?  Oh!  No need to explain why it would get more happy use by being permanently bolted to the ground somewhere.)

Initially, I liked it here… and I could build a little brick wall along the back and make an awning style cover to shield it some from snow and rain.

 

Pros:

• I have plenty of room here to create whatever type of back and cover I would like for it.

• It is somewhat close to the main sliding glass door we use to enter the yard.

Cons:

• The front side of the grill would have no protection from build-up of snow.

• During inclement or cold weather I could not easily sit inside the house and have direct line of sight to the grill.

This style places the grill closer, (but still more than 5ft away from the house):

 

Pros:

• During inclement or cold weather I could very easily sit inside the house by the sliding glass door and have direct line of sight to the entire grill.

• It is easily accessed from the main sliding glass door we use to enter the yard.

• The front side of the grill would be partially sheltered from build-up of snow.

Cons:

• If I create a back wall and sheltered top, I would block my #2 most looked at view of my yard and the hills across the valley from us, so we probably would not want to build a back wall or top shelter.

• The back and both sides would be exposed to weather, wind, and snow… though the right side would have some protection from wind with the fence section, wall, or bushes, that separate the front door from the “yard”.

Here is how it might look if we used the peashrubs instead of fence panel to the right of the grill…

 

As always, thoughts on our bushes and grill placement would be very appreciated.