Starting some landscape projects...need advice!

[jclements]

I'm finally starting to do some landscaping projects around my house. The first area I want to tackle is the west side of our home. Our next door neighbor on this side of the house has several mature (~50 year-old) pecan trees, so half of this side yard gets decent shade. The idea is to plant against the foundation. I was thinking about a row of hydrangeas and then some sort of perennial in front and a slightly wavy metal (easy to weed eat against) border. Wayside gardens has a pretty good sale on perennials and shrubs, buy 1 get 2 and buy 2 get 5, so I could get some nice hydrangeas and heucheras quite reasonably. I'd like to plant a big row of day lilies along the neighbor's fence, or something similar that would be easy to maintain.

So here's the side yard. You can see it from the front of the house since we have an iron fence/gate on this side of the house. Any thoughts/suggestions? Any good sales other than wayside that you might suggest? Will hydrangeas do OK here? Other perennials you might suggest instead or in addition to? Also, we do have a sprinkler system, so it would be easy to water on a regular basis.

Thanks in advance!

[Sunbeam56]

Shade? (Nice magnolia in the background).

If your neighbor's fence is in the shade most of the day - hostas may be a better choice than daylilies.

I really don't like linear gardening. Nature abhors a straight line - and nothing says "unnatural" more than a straight line.

What do you do on this side of the house? A staight expanse of grass seems to say that you don't use it much, except to mow the lawn?
Do you want to use it? Doing what?

YOu have potted lotus and a potted lily - do you want a water garden?

Design follows function - Frank Lloyd Wright.

[jclements]

Hi Sunbeam, this photo is from last summer, right after we moved here. Those containers have all relocated to my back patio/deck and have multiplied big time (pics posted on the main pond section).

Yeah, the magnolia is out front, original to the house. It's pretty, but also pretty messy this time of year. I'll let it stay since it is a nice shady evergreen. The neighbor next door has 3-4 very mature pecan trees, as tall or taller than the magnolia. You can't really tell in the photo I posted. Here are some aerial photos in both the summer and winter.





I have outlined my property with a yellow line. So the side yard I'd like to start with is on the left in these photos. You can see in the summer that it's almost completely shaded by the pecans towards the back of the house. I was thinking day lilies since they have such a "grassy" appearance to the foliage and would be easy to maintain (not too much weed eating near them). I could possibly put in a preform pond towards the iron fence/gate, since it has more sun and less leaves dropping in the fall. We don't go out here too much except to play bocce ball and croquet since it's a nice long lawn. The kitchen window does look out into this yard near the middle, and the dining room window looks out closer to the fence. I really don't want a straight edge border on either side, something curvy would be nice.

[Mikey]

Since I am in a vastly different zone I can't offer much in plants to choose.  However, Dave's Garden just came out with this article that may be of interest and help.  http://davesgarden.com:80/guides/articles/view/1141/?utm_source=nl_2008-06-16&utm_medium=email

I re-landscaped our front yard three years ago.  To get ideas I not only attended local spring garden tours to get ideas but I spent several days driving through various neighborhoods with my digital camera.  When I saw something I liked I took a photo.  After several weeks of doing this I printed out all the photos that I really liked to determine what I could incorporate into my landscape.  I then sketched out both my hard-scape and soft-scape.  We were very pleased with the end result.

[jclements]

Thanks, Mikey! There are a few yards that I admire in the neighborhood and I have been thinking about swinging by with my camera. I was worried it might be a little weird. Did anyone ever get upset with you photographing their yard?

[Mikey]

I took my photos during the week when most would normally be at work.  I was concerned that someone might be worried about me taking photos.  I did some photos with the zoom feature.  I took at least a couple dozen photos and no one ever challenged me and the cops never came knocking on my door to find out what I was up to. 

With Google maps you could go down a street and check things out from the comfort of your living room.... 

[jclements]

Very true. Google photographed our neighborhood last summer. DH's old car is parked in front of our house in their photos. LOL!

[LeeAnne151]

I don't know your zone at all but I have been reading good things about a new series of Hydrangeas that Lowe's carries called Forever and Ever. According to my reading, they out perform Endless Summer which hasn't seemed to live up to it's hype.