Describe in detail what you mean. The soil is being raised 10"? Why? And "edge" in what manner? There is not any reason to til first if you are doing that.

Raising a bed like that has the potential to mess up drainage if one does not account for related factors. Since there is no picture, it would be impossible to speculate about.

Thanks Yardvaark. I will be putting in flower beds where there is currently grass along the house and walkway. To "edge" I will be using a spade or shovel to make those nice trench like edges.

I really hate the look of flower beds that are flat or only an inch or two above the grass, so i was planning on mounding up the dirt to make them higher and top with mulch. Will post a picture of current situation in the morning.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Do I need to remove the grass or can I just put a few inches of soil on top of the grass then mulch? Hope this clears things up.

Greg

The photos definitely help. Your instincts are good in many ways - your beds are far too small for the building and the shrub in the front bed is far too tight to the building (actually all 3 are), so while you are redoing you should remove the shrub or move outward to give it decent spacing, depending on what it is and if you like it. It looks to me like burning bush Euonymus which is both invasive and pretty boring; you can get it IDed from photos on the Name that Plant forum. You also want to pull mulch away from the base of your tree 3"-4" so that the root flare shows and rot doesn't form which may kill the tree eventually.

A couple problems - the front walk is really narrow - would you consider widening with a course of brick or patio block set on a solid sand bed to either side so it's as wide as your front step? And bed height - look at how low the siding on your home is - you can't build the bed up much since it can't be as high as the siding; higher will either be against the siding (rot and insects) or if you slope the bed back towards the building it will channel water back towards the building (not good for drainage), so the siding height minus a few inches will be the limit of your bed height. If you add a fluffy groundcover between whatever else you plant, it will give the illusion of bed height without causing the problems with added soil height.

Since you sound like you want to get this built and planted sooner, I would remove the turf and compost it. Tilling will not kill it, and you could smother it, but that would take a season of no planting (or the grass will come up around your plants), so removal will be best since it's a relatively small area. I grew up in Cleveland, and my folks' house had a fair amount of clay in the soil. If yours is like that, you don't want to work on it until it is fairly dry or you will compact it, making it more difficult for plants to grow. My folks' gardens always needed a good amount of organic matter added to help break up the clay - compost, composted manure, etc., and I always added and turned in to the whole bed, not just the planting hole as that can cause problems with water movement through the soil.

I also would most likely paint the downspout a darker color where it turns to horizontal since even with a planted bed around it that white will still be quite visible.

If you want to make the house look better, widen the walk and the step.

You say you want to raise soil 8" to 10" but, seriously, I cannot see how you can possibly do this without causing potentially serious drainage and moisture problems. It looks like at the front of the house, the soil is as high as it can go without getting too close to the bottom of the siding, if it is not already there. Getting too close invites moisture infiltration into the wall. If that happens, insects -- specifically termites -- will follow. The yard looks very flat. It needs to be raised enough that the soil surface slopes away from the house for a few feet all around. But in flat yard situations this is sometimes a hair-splitting, fine tuning operation. Soil must drain away but it cannot get too close to bottom of siding. At the side of the house, it looks like you could raise the soil a couple of inches in order to develop a slight slope away from the house, but that's it. And on the other hand, you cannot raise soil away from the house and have it sloping back toward the house, so the plan of these extensively raised beds seem flawed. I would counsel you to adopt another approach.

There is a phenomenon which I do not fully understand, but we see it here on this forum from time to time. It involves someone vehemently detesting some landscape solution for no reason that most of us who have familiarity with landscape operations can see. Yet detest vehemently they do! And there is a counterpart phenomenon ... people loving, cherishing and adoring other landscape solutions that many of us have written off as failures years or decades ago. But love them they do! One rule of thumb that I think should underlie everything one does is: do not create things that look fake. It is OK to create fake things, but they should look real if they are to have any chance of being convincing. (This should not be misconstrued to mean that one cannot create miniatures/reproductions, etc.) In that vein, one needs to be careful with grade, berms and the like, so as not to create grade changes that look like there might be no purpose for them other than perhaps a shallow grave was needed in order to dispose of an animal carcass ... or the well head had to be hidden. Or any other thing like that. Arbitrarily raising grade substantially, without it looking well planned, in a relatively small setting, could look odd.

Consider that in a completely finished bed one does not actually see grade. One sees plant surfaces and these merely intimate the grade that belies them. Knowing this, if one has a concern about beds looking too flat, why not change the appearance of grade with plant material, which is easy and causes no problems with drainage and moisture, instead of changing it with soil? One can create all kinds of depth and 3-dimensional interest merely with plant material.

I'm all for getting rid of the fake retaining wall and expanding the bed. I'm also for relocating the young tree in the front yard. It's too at center, while there is a large amount of vacant space more toward the corner and side of the house. The yellow line is a vague suggestion of a bed line. You could manipulate it to serve your specific purposes, depending on what you intend to do along the side of the house. The bed could even take up the entire side yard if you want to install that much plant material.

As Babs pointed out, the shrub below the window is too close. Another complaint is that it is being trimmed so the bottom is narrower than the top ... as one would do if creating a tree form. It should be trimmed in the opposite manner.

Both of the two previous comments contain excellent suggestions and advice. I have nothing else to add that they did not address. I too would have suggested relocation the tree - besides its awkward placement, it looks like an afterthought plunked down in the middle of the lawn. Including it in a larger planting bed as sketched gives it context.

I would also encourage enlarging the walk and porch landing. Why builders/architects insist on such stingy proportions for what is arguably one of the most import factors of curb appeal and welcome is beyond me but they are almost uniformly consistent in being undersized. And the first thing I usually suggest changing.

Ditto on enlarging the stoop. I didn't mention because down deep, I believe it will not be done. I think builders are stingy on everything just as soon as they get outside. They have already gotten people used to tiny stoops and walks and they know people are tired of spending money as soon as the inside is done. As houses have gotten larger and more costly, stoops and walks have stayed relatively small and cheap. They are more or less the same size and caliber as for the 900 SF post-war houses of late 1940s.

Wow! Thanks everyone. Looks like I am going to have to change up my game plan. Any idea on a ballpark of how much it should cost to pour a new walkway? Would it look better if the whole thing was re-poured or widened with brick of some type?

Also, I still have the issue of that white pipe sticking up in the front yard about 3 ft from the walkway. I was planning on enclosing it with in a new bed, but now I'm not so certain....

Thanks again.

If you have the financing to redo the whole walk and stoop, much better looking. I suggested the alternate since many folks with a new mortgage are a bit tapped out as far as additional financing for projects. If you do this, you can also think about whether you like it in its current spot or would prefer having it meet the drive further down. Does a car parked in the drive currently block the walkway? Would you like to be able to plant something between the walkway and the garage? How does this affect the cleanout/white pipe? How do you want to use the front yard, if at all?

As far as the pipe, if it's in a bed you can paint and then cover with mulch to camouflage. I'd wait to make decisions until you see where the walk ends up. Regardless, if you are planting on the street side of the walkway, you will want to restrict your plantings to something lower so that visitors can see the door clearly and they don't feel crowded by plants.

Regarding the white cleanout that is about 3' from the walk, It would be taking the long way home to create a bed just to hide this. If you dig down a little and explore, it may be that the cleanout fitting is attached to a vertical pipe that can be easily cut a little lower and a new cleanout fitting glued on -- so that it is flush with grade. Don't let it's position control a new walk location. Sometimes these things end up in the walk, flush with the surface, and that's OK. If the white plastic drove you crazy, for a price it could be changed to brass.

Regarding the white tail pipe to the gutter, if the grade sloping away from house was adequate, I prefer the look of a regular downspout elbow at the base of gutter (it only sticks out a few inches) and a concrete splash block below that. That close to a house its usually within a bed so not seen or noticed after plants are in place.

If the walk was going to be completely redone, it would be better to move it farther from the house.

Many times, depending on funding, a walk can be widened by mortaring on a brick-length band of brick along each side, giving a decorative edge and 16 total inches of additional width. This could also be a medium term temporary solution to be redone later when funding is easier.

There are many variables in pricing a new walk/step. You'd need to have some kind of design worked up in order to get a real price. Do you have any DIY skills? It would definitely be a lot cheaper that way. I guess $1,500 to as much, or more, than $4K if a stoop re-do is involved. But that depends on how you redo it, too.

You plan to move/remove that huge rock, right?

I probably should move that rock. Its just so big.

As for the walk, any thoughts on having it go straight to the sidewalk? We would be the only home in the development that has this so I'm not sure if that would make it more of am eyesore than visually appealing....

Do you mean connecting to a city walkway that we can't see? It's not likely that having it routed that way would be preferable since your door is lined up so near the driveway. It would duplicate what the drive already does. On the other hand (and we can't see the total driveway also) many drives are made narrow so that there's barely any walking room if there are cars parked there. Oftentimes, what works out well when redoing the walk is to bring it to the drive edge and then continue to the city walk, or even to the curb, in effect widening the driveway. In order to advise what would be good, the site must be seen.

The rock doesn't need to be removed......in fact, I consider large boulders in a landscape a feature rather than a detriment (the ultimate in a low maintenance garden element!!). But its current location is a bit like that tree's current location - random and not with any context.

It could certainly be incorporated as a feature in a planting bed but it needs to look like it is part of the native landscape, not like it was just dropped by a low flying plane, as it does now!! And that means it needs to be firmly implanted into the ground, not just resting on top of the surface. You need to bury or sink at least a third of its mass below the surface..........think of it like an iceberg, with more below the surface than you can see on top.

btw, even large boulders like this one can be rolled into a new place by using a long and strong pry bar. May need a second set of hands (and pry bar) to accomplish this easily. And have the new site prepared first, just like you would with a new plant.

It's like a whole new house!

Yardvaark this is outstanding. Its so simple, but better than anything in would have come up with on my own. I am so thankful for everyone's input. By all means... Don't stop now!!!

That's my middle name -- "simple." And it was done without adding any soil ... or very little.

Thoughts on what color mulch to use?

some shade of brown. Eventually it's all covered up with plants growing over it so won't be critical in the future. Personally, I prefer the look of a fine texture over a course texture. Mulches vary regionally depending on what is readily available and inexpensive. If you use red mulch and post a picture of it here, I warn you haters will come out of the woodwork.

Ofcourse I was thinking of going red.... Ha!

Hopefully you won't and will be spared the ridicule.

You want the focus on the plants and flowers, with the mulch just there to reduce weeds and keep moisture and temperature more even. You don't want the mulch to grab all the attention by being the brightest thing there. I much prefer brown mulch as close to dirt colored as possible. (and yes I hate red mulch!)

The other thing I noticed in Greg's yard is the utility (phone?) box with a little tuft of plant next to it. Can you either make that more of a garden or just lawn? Right now it looks a bit orphaned out there. Are you allowed to incorporate it into a garden, or cover it with a good looking fake rock (to go along with the moved real rock) or obelisk with a vine, etc. or does it need to stay completely visible?

I'm certain I can make it into a bed.... I think.

I'd check with the utility before doing a bunch of work out there. You should also figure out how deep the utility lines are buried since you don't want to run a shovel into your phone (or whatever) line. (and I have to say how enjoyable you are to work with - photos when requested, willing to be flexible about prior ideas, and a sense of humor!)

Thanks Babs. Everyone here has been so helpful and none of it is for their benefit. I'm blown away. This is my first house and first yard, so I will gladly soak up all of the knowledge and creativity you guys have to offer.

Now just wait till I ask for advice on this puddle of a back yard I have.... Its a mess!

Babe, you'll be disappointed to know that I cut my cable/internet line the other day