Southside Nursery Blog

Definitely check out the "Outdoor Decor" section on Shopallstoresonline.com - you can get lots of good ideas there! Good luck.
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top soil, level land, add grass, flowers are nice. shrubs, benches, bricks, your options are only as limited as your ideas
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Where are you lolocated is the first question to answer. Assuming that you are living along the upper west coastal areas like Seattle and Vancouver:

Buy yourself some shrubs and plants that can withstand both acidic soil and dry weather conditions. I recommend acidic soil loving plant life because the rain leaches the soil here; furthermore, because you're on a sloping area, the rain may not penetrate as much as a flat yard.

Get yourself some bark mulch and shrubs that do well in acidic dry soil like Junipers, Hydrangeas, Heathers, Evergreen Trees, Cedar type shrubs and trees, roses, etc…
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Area sloped down towards sidewalk.To help what dirt you have from washing away put flower beds along sidewalk on your side.I use those lawn timbers for mine.Get a load of sod and lay thay down.It wont wash away as if you put dirt and seed.Thats a waste of money on sloped land.Put flowers not needing alot of water,cacti family. Dont annuals they dont come back another waste of money.Get dacor grasses and butterfly bushes,thats for the monarch comeing thru.Ask at garden center wahts best.
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First of all a good rule of thumb is that landscaping will cost (to do it right and professionally) 20% of the cost of your home. This includes an irrigation system. Speaking of which you'd do well to have your shrub beds on a different zone than your lawn! Depending on what you refurbish first, you'll be using more water at different times of the year in the two different areas.

As for landscape materials, consider a retaining wall border to both hold the soil and level out your shrub area. This will also prevent further erosion and add some interesting texture to your "streetscape." A small yard does better with a mass planting of the same material. If your lawn is divided, consider balance on either side of your front door. If one side has a larger window, consider one specimen plant or tree. Also, never stop at the exact corners of your home. Rather, wrap around the corner to both soften the sharp edge of the house and add the illusion that your home and lot are larger than they are.
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Landscape Company owner

You could put in some retaining walls, but this can be very expensive. Most important thing would be to stop the soil erosion.

Increase the value by making the garden look like a cool place to relax on a hot day (this is always inviting in a hot climate).

Draw up bed areas, and use shrubs, preferably in two or three layers. Shrubs are hardier in drought (deeper roots). Put high shrubs at the back, medium in the middle and low or ground covering ones at the front.

Use dense plantings, nothing looks more 'cheap and nasty' than an odd plant and then soil or gravel. Also use different leaf sizes, shapes and shades of green or variegation.

If you don't want to go to the trouble of building retaining walls definitely use the junipers as a ground cover they are neat evergreen and drought tolerant when established.

If you want a neat expensive look use different levels of hedging or use a well shaped pruned plant mixed amoung the plantings. Don't go overboard on lots of colours unless you decide on a cottage garden look, this can look very old fashioned. Go for just a few colours if you want a sophisticated look eg white, pink and blue. An all white flowering can look very nice particularly if your garden is very shaded by the oaks.

Hope this helps, a lot depends on personal taste. Why not go around your neighbourhood and take notes on what you like about different gardens. When you sit down and look at your notes later you will probably find a pattern and you can then implement this in you own garden.
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One important thing is to not damamge the root system of the oaks.

If the oaks are important to you, get an arborist to help you plan the project.
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