After over ten years of trimming, watering, weeding and planting the garden we inherited when we moved in, we decided it was time to change. Too many plants needed too much water. The deck was rotting underneath, since they didn’t use rot-resistant materials to build it. The trellis could come down in a strong wind. There wasn’t enough hardscape, so everything needed trimming.
The new landscape will have lots of paths for easy circulation and one less thing to maintain. The redwood from the old deck will be recycled for the new one, the old, cracking concrete slab will be broken up into urbanite, stained with a soy based coloring agent and used to make paths. It will be sustainable – paving will be pervious, a rain garden will reduce runoff into the storm drain system, and the irrigation will adjust itself according to how much water is actually needed. A meadow will replace the lawn, where we can test lawn substitutes such as Carex praegracillis and other grassy plants that supposedly save water. One section of the garden will not be irrigated – instead it will be planted with annual wildflowers and bulbs. This will probably evolve over time, but there’s already an improvement: all the things that were falling over are now gone or ready for their new life.