Archive for Low Maintenance Landscape Examples – Page 17

Backyard Makeover for the Love of the Dog

Landscaping for Your Dog

Grass landscaping for your dog.

This is what grass is really good for!

In need of landscaping for a dog.

The shed was unattractive and too small for a home without a garage. Before Landscape Design in a Day.

Peanut was the only one using this back yard.

My client Susan wanted the back yard to be private, very simple and wanted to solve problems such as where to put her bikes, hide the garbage cans and create a mud room for Peanut to come and go from.  We had finished the front landscape the year prior designing for a sunny, easy care garden that included her veggie beds, the design also added dramatic curb appeal.  “I get a ton of compliments from my neighbors.”  Susan M.

Fabulous tool shed for dog landscaping.

Peanut’s patch of lawn in front of the new tool shed.

So while we really were fixing up the back yard for the dog, everyone uses it now.  The new stone patio entertaining area with raised planter surround makes it easy to care for the plantings and they are taller to boost the privacy effect.  The new landscape is very low maintenance

Find Peanut the dog in her newly landscaped back yard.

Peanut likes her new back porch. She is in this picture, can you find her?

with a small lawn (for Peanut of course).  The fig tree my client Susan had always wanted went up into the stone planter.  The credit for the wood structures goes to Susan’s architect.  The tool shed, the garbage can corral and the bike shed are a wonder of good design.  I worked closely with Donna Burdick of D & J Landscape Contractors to install the hardscapes (basalt stone walls, the huge extra thick flagstone for the patio, plantings and irrigation).    I love how this courtyard styled back yard looks.  Best of all Peanut approves!!

If you are looking for Portland landscaping for your dogs, contact me for more information.

 

Ultimate Courtyard Garden

Blog pic Knight in her new courtyard garden Photo Oct 18, 10 30 35 AMCondominium owner Katherine Knight had a tiny disaster back yard.  She went on Angie’s List and found Carol Lindsay Landscape Design in a Day and on the phone we hit it off instantly.  She told me “It all sucks, what I want is a beautiful low maintenance place to chill out with my friends.”  After talking we decided that a Landscape Design in a Day would fit her needs perfectly.

On our design day I found plenty of difficulties, horrible surface roots from the condominium common area trees, deep shade, an avalanche of tree debris and some tricky rules and regulations from the condominium association.

On the plus side, her small back yard looked out on a park like setting of grass and mature trees.  She had a hydrangea gifted from her daughter and a structurally attractive Japanese Maple that we could reuse beautifully.

My client says “it all sucks” referring to her tiny back yard

Katherine also wanted a garden that she could care for into her golden years.  On our design day it became clear that a courtyard would be perfect for her.  I suggested stone walls to create two large planters that would frame the new courtyard.  The surface was “last forever” 2″ thick, dyed concrete slabs that fit over a pressure treated wood deck frame.  This technique was a big money saver.  I added full season, easy care plantings into her planters  and utilized her daughter’s hydrangea in a prominent location.  We saved her Japanese Maple and made it the focal point of the garden by selecting a sparkling copper toned pot and placing it where it could be seen from the dining room table.  She was excited about the design and hired me to help her be her own general contractor for the installation.

“I got everything I wanted and then was shocked at how beautiful it all is.”

I brought in specialty contractors to include my husband, Bob Lindsay, Urban Renaissance, and two other contractors that I have worked with previously. In addition to installing the new design, the irrigation was updated to fit the new landscape.

Kathy said “I got everything I wanted and then was shocked at how beautiful it all is.  My neighbor says I now have the ultimate courtyard garden and I added a $20,000 value to my condominium.”

Kathy and I will work together to design her gate and install her lighting plan in the Spring.