Old House Gardens: Simple makeovers can have big impact

As regular readers know I am a big proponet of "no mow' landscaping. Frankly I dont have the time to spend my weekends cutting grass so my goal is zero grass landscaping. In an urban environment, where lots are often small anyway having a lawn is just not practical. Such is the case with our Indy House called "The Willows".

When I designed this garden the goal was low maintence and we selected plans that would quickly mature and establish a great space. The back yard on this house is small 30 feet deep and only 40 feet wide. In that space we were able to build a generous size deck with Pergola, a hot tub, firepit and a large patio with a bar.  Landscaping was kept simple with a two waterfall pond with footbridge that led from the deck to the stone patio. Plantings were kept simple with a couple of willow trees and some small spuce trees and of course ground covers like Ivy and Vinca. Low maintenance but we decided we wanted a little more interest and a little less groundcover.

The plan was simple we would reduce the planting area slightly by adding a footpath through the garden that would start an the foot  bridge and  wind past the hot tub meeting up with the stone patio at the rear gate. We used the same mohave sandstone that is used in the patio to make the path. We already had the leftover stone from the patio construction a few years back.The change was that we used river rock in between rather than patio base to give it a more natural look. Out came the ivy and was replaced by hostas we already had that were thinned out from our side garden.



The path now gives the space more functionality and makes weeding simpler

 Time spend 1 day total additional cost was limited to mulch and a few bags of river rock Makeover cost? Thirty bucks in material.

BEFORE:While more natural, it was not as functional as it is now