Landscaping – The Back of the House
The house in the spring after we bought it.
The pond behind the house:
In the spring of 2006, KC had agreed to let me replace our back deck, which was peeling badly, and was being supported by bricks where the stairs had fallen off, with a patio!
The old deck, taken the spring after we moved in (before it started peeling):
And in the fall before we replaced it:
For reference, here again is a shot of the trees in the back:.
Were really happy with the brickwork in the front so we used Chris Nikolas of Sod Off Scape Shapers again. He suggested we remove two of the three birches in the back – they were too close together and all were unhealthy as a result -- and all the overgrown evergreens. He also suggested a seating wall around the perimeter. We used the same brick colors that we’d used for the front stoop and walk.
Because of the size of the trees in the back Chris suggested we hire a specialist to remove them so we brought in Bartlett Tree Experts (We were happy with the work they did and have retained them to manage the health of the remaining trees on our property.) Once the trees were out, we gave Chris the go-ahead.
Work started on April 9th, 2006.
First they removed the old deck:
Then, they leveled the ground. The house is on a hill and, as you can see in the photos above, the old deck was two levels. The level on the west side, accessed by the kitchen, was higher than the one on the east, accessed by the family room. We wanted to drop the patio down on the west side, add 2 steps up to the kitchen door, and slop it gently towards the east.
Over that went gravel:
Then sand:
And then the bricks:
Less than a month later, on May 6th, 2006, it was all finished!
The east side, in front of the family room:
The east side,seen from the lawn:
The center:
The center seen from the lawn:
Another view of the center:
The west side, in front of the kitchen:
We had intended to extend the western edge of the patio in front of my studio and, eventually, connect it to the walkway on the western side of the house, which would also, eventually, be brick to match the one in the front. We ran out of money, however, and had to truncate it so we rounded off the edge about where the old deck ended and added some stone ‘steps’ to transition to the side.
The western edge, truncated:
The stone steps leading to the side walkway:
The stone step on the eastern side, for balance:
At this point, we also had NO money for plants! So, with my sister Linda’s help, both physical and in the form of cuttings from her garden, I created a semblance of ‘softscape’ to get us through the summer.
In between the two seating walls in the center, KC put in a stone path. On either side of that, Linda and I moved the hostas from the western side of the house. Some lilies and sedum from other areas of the garden were also moved as was a spare smoke bush from when we did the front. The cuttings from Linda’s garden were scattered around and I added a few annuals for color.
The stone path from the patio to the lawn:
Right after this, we decided to have the exterior of the house painted. Actually, we got an unbelievable deal from a student who, with two colleagues, did the entire job for under $2000, so we couldn’t afford NOT To do it, given the way the paint looked. The color turned out much lighter than I expected but I like it. The BEST part of the new paint job, though, was the garage: it was now dark red to match the new front door! Here are some after shots:
I had intended my first pass at the back softscape to be temporary but by the end of the summer I LOVED the way it looked:
Summer 2006:
Fall 2006:
A sunset over the new deck on a rainy night:
One thing I DIDN’T like about the new patio was that we had lost much of the privacy that the overgrown bushes had provided. When people walked down from the street to the pond (it is community property for the resident in the association) it really felt like they were trespassing because they could see and hear us and we them. I needed to provide some kind of screen but every time I mentioned it, KC would go ballistic over the cost. He wanted privacy too but having spent a small fortune on the hardscape he refused to spend any more.
The following year, 2007, I actually did a lot of gardening because I still didn’t like the way the landscaping looked, but I was frustrated by the amount of work the garden took, resented it, and did it begrudgingly. So much of what I did died, or was eaten by rabbits, that I was discouraged as well and didn’t take many pictures. I was trying, desperately, to create height – both in front and in back – without spending money on expensive bushes.
Here is the only shot I have of the back, with our new patio furniture:
At the end of the year, in October of 2007, when the local nurseries were offering half-price deals on all their bushes, I convinced KC to let me add a few. In the back, I replaced the infected burning bushes with 3 arborvitae. On the west side of the patio I put in 3 larger arborvitae in an attempt to prevent trespassers from cutting through to the street between our house and our neighbor’s. On the east side I did the same with a witch hazel and a plum. Between our house and the pond I put in 4 smaller bushes that would turn wonderful colors in the fall. I also put three smaller bushes in the beds behind the seating walls to create some height. I couldn’t wait for spring to come, to see what they’d look like….
WOW!
Spring 2008 was GLORIOUS!
We had a relatively mild winter with few thaw freeze cycles and in April we were inundated with rain. So, at the beginning of May, the garden was popping! The creeping jenny ground cover I’d tested as a possible replacement for mulch – which is notorious in many ways (it infected our maples with a root fungus) – was taking off and its light green color set off everything growing around it. KC asked me to add more and I did.
The pictures below were taken on MAY 8th!
The Brunnera Macrophylla were already in bloom and their blue flowers contrasted beautifully against golden edges of the Aurora Marginata hosta,
Two weeks later, the lilac and Jacob’s Ladder opened up, and the smoke bush was a gorgeous dark, dark red.
Late in June, the lilies bloomed, followed closely by the hosta. The smoke bush, however, is suffering:
In this shot you can see the three arborvitae that replaced the sand cherries on the eastern side
You can also see the pots I created to bring some color ONTO the patio
and, on the far left, the folding picnic-table-cum-plant-stand that was our kitchen table until we replaced it:
In mid-July the hollyhock buds started opening:
And the hydrangea which had NEVER bloomed, now had 5 flowers:
Once the lilies wind down, there is not much in bloom in the back…
I need to find some August-blooming shade perennials:
A shot of the new witch hazel, plum, and globe arborvitae:
Closeups of the beds:
Long views:
Some shots of the back from INSIDE the family room:
The window through which these shots were taken:
As much as I like the back this year, I am not as happy with it as I am with the front. The beds are too narrow for the size of the patio so I will be widening them. The shots below show the spade edge I dug to mark the new size of each bed.
I won’t be adding any new plants but I will be dividing the existing hostas and sedum and using them at the outside edges. The plants in the beds will be spread out into the new space.
When the walk on the side of the house is complete (more on that later), I will move the two spirea bushes at the foot of this maple (on the right side of the photo) to the sides of the mud room door, and will put a ring of lilies and Russian sage around this corner similar the one on the western edge of the property.
The situation with the walk on the side of the house is as follows:
On June 7th we gave Chris Nikolas of Sod Off Scape Shapers a down payment on the new walkway. He was supposed to start work on June 25th but, since June 17th, the last day I spoke to him, we had not heard hide nor hair of him.
At first, I was furious, Chris is normally very good about returning phone calls, but after six weeks had passed I was afraid something bad had happened to him. The problem was that I couldn’t find anyone who could tell us what his situation is. So, we waited, hoping he would suddenly appear to do the work.
On July 28th I was woken up by loud pounding on the side of the house. I sprang out of bed and ran downstairs. YES! Chris’s guys were there, taking out the old walkway! They explained that Chris’ mother, who lives in Greece, had cancer and that Chris had been out of town arranging for her care. Although we’re sorry that Chris is going through this (we, too, are caring for aging parents) we’re glad Chris is OK and back on the job.
The work was completed on August 7th, 2008. In addition to putting in the new walkway, he expanded the size of all the beds in the back incorporating the bushes I’d put in the previous fall as well as the 2 lilacs and 3 rhododendons I purchased earlier this year (which had been languishing in pots). He also cut a spade edge along the eastern side of the house connecting the back to the front. Eventually we will add low retaining walls around all these beds.
I will add pictures as soon as I have some good ones.
My goal, eventually, is to have a secluded garden as lush as the deck of our Halsted St. Condo:
The deck of our Halsted St. condo
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Last Revised: July 21, 2008
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