It sounds like it's going to be a long process. Does that mean that you won't plant until fall? That makes sense since you plan on conifers, shrubs and perhaps a tree.

It sounds like she's got an aversion to what is called "meatball" shrubs and pruning method. Most evergreens do have a rounded habit so what would she replace them with? How far will she stray from the more manicured style that has been the base of your landscaping, and is that what you want?

Hi Eileen - agree it’s going to be a longer process & we assumed that based on scheduling for the skills needed. Summer is very busy time! And, yes, fall is for planting, right? I don’t know if the designer has an aversion to round shrubs & conifers or if it’s her design eye wanting the contrasts of shapes & heights. As she explained, plant selection is last so I’ve no idea what she’d use. She did comment I have no grasses & that she liked the day lillies in that small border in my 2nd pic because they flower & are ’grass like’.. I’m sure it’s the movement of grasses she likes. In the meantime, here’s our finished water feature - we love it! I’d taken out the smaller plants behind it so I’m now working on what to do there.

"The larger rock creek beds are really ankle breakers if one is trying to walk in them for any reason."

You mentioned aging in place in your original post.

I'm an RN with a few years home care experience; part of my job was looking for potential safety concerns in the home. I do think you're right that the small stones would be easier to navigate than all those big round stones. And it looks good like that. But even with mostly gravel, maintaining and weeding a dry creek bed might become hazardous - a fall risk - BEFORE mowing the flat grassy yard would have been difficult. Please only include the creek bed if you are willing to outsource the maintenance of it as soon as there is any mobility/vision concern.

This concludes my safety lecture. All the best with your yard renovation! You have a beautiful home and yard, and lots of good ideas here.

I would nix any deciduous trees. I have to lightly rake my gravel path several times a week just from the debris that falls out of a 60' tree that shades most of my backyard. In fall it's a nightmare to clean up the leaves, especially in the PNW where leaves may fall well into our rainy season. Often I'm cleaning up leaves in spring. Was glad we got such nice weather last month so that we could mulch-mow them and dress our beds with them.

Sarah B. - I appreciate your good advice on hazards of dry creek beds with regard to fall risks. I absolutely plan to hire able bodied people to do home maintenance things we should not be doing because of personal risk hazard and not wait until the day we cannot be doing the task because we’re not physically able. We already have a guy who cleans our roof & gutters ( we live under fir trees) and another who cleans our windows. I have a strongly ingrained fear of falling, breaking something & winding up either immobile or having to use mobility aids to get around. Caring for my extremely mobile mom who lived in an independent living retirement community is what opened my eyes. Though my mom, in her early 90’s then, didn’t need even a cane or walker, I saw all those in both independent living and the assisted living community side, who needed them and badly. Getting to that point of need due to simple body failure or illness is quite different than having an injury caused by something avoidable. So, I do appreciate your reinforcement to my plan!

Kathy

Eileen, That’s exactly what I told the designer - If it’s critical for design that a tree be placed okay, but no deciduous trees! There are already 2 maples in front yard borders & 6 - yes SIX maples in back yard planting beds. Add to that the 3 giant Douglas Firs on the property behind us & it’s clear that we’re well acquainted with clean up required for trees, deciduous or not.

I'm not against trees and even recommended them to you, but not near gravel and rocks!

Eileen, anyone living in PNW as you & I do is well acquainted with the concern for protectction & expansion of our regional tree canopy! But, for sure, the hardscape that should be a piece of my conifir garden vision does not lend itself to being compatible with lots of leaf fall! I’m hoping I do receive a concept design in @ a week. I think the purpose is to give us something specific to talk about for an actual design.

KW, I saw another grass-less lawn today. This one had undulating lumps and blobs, probably with colors sprinkled throughout that come in at different times. How is the progress with your designer?

@Little Bird - that grass-less scape looks like a mono-scape - filled with just a few of the same plant. Almost formal looking but serene feeling. My first reaction was ”look at all the rounds!” Remember the designer’s comment to me about all the ’rounds’ in my yard? 🤣 But, as to design progress she texted me yesterday saying she’s”…trying to finish your proposal…should be able to get it to you tomorrow.” Stay tuned for that - I’m not sure what to expect for a ’concept plan’ as she said she’d draw out but I am excited to see it as my next step in this project. In the meantime I’ve been taking advantage of our sunny but coolish weather & have taken out 4 shrubs along front entry & stone path across front of house to open it up & create the ’negative space’ that designers like. I divided the Coral Bell / Heuchera lining the path & am using them for filler & color while new Firepower Dwarf Nandina fill in. I put in 2 new shrubs + 2 miniature conifers. The dwarf shore pine at left & Viridis Maple at right are now the main event in this space. That’s 6’+ between the chimney pot on left & maple on right so lots of room for Firepower there. The bright green small shrub in center is the new Firepower. I’m thinking the elfin thyme will now spread into bed too - it’s just starting to bloom - needs some heat to do that.

This is 2nd firepower behind the rock. Some of the coral bells looking sad but if don’t perk up I’ll replace. The mini conifers will be @ 1x1’s.

Is this your first experience with nandina? I have the dwarf Gulf Stream and I have to pull the old leaves off every spring because they look ugly with all the pretty red new growth. It's turned all green already though.

I think my favorite small shrub is lonicera nitida--boxleaf honeysuckle. I have grown Edmee Gold and Twiggy for about ten years and added Lemon Beauty, a variegated form, along my front porch in the fall of 2022.

Haha, there are a lot of balls on that landscape. I hope you don’t get rid of all yours though - I think it actually looks nice. I like the splashes of color that you have too. Look forward to seeing what your designer comes up with!

Eileen - I have a small hedge of the lonicera nitida! Has been in for years & I finally sheared it hard a couple years ago to regain control. I usually use my grab & snip pruning style with it so it’s softer. I learned that any branches touching ground root!! Nandina - not my first experience at all. I have both Gulf Stream & Brandy Wine in back yard & I do clip out a few older branchlets on Gulf Stream & full canes on the taller, thinner leafed Brandy Wine to keep them tidy. This FirePower seems a newer cultivar & I’d read it doesn’t bloom which means no berries. I look for that feature now after learning nandina berries are toxic to birds. I cut off the spent flowers of types that make berries now.

Forgot to say the Firepower is listed as a slow grower & max 3x3 at most. This will leave much more open space around each of them in the 2 spots I planted them in.

That's Lemon Beauty! Can't wait for it to grow up like yours! I like the shape of the long branches on my Edmee Gold and haven't sheared them. I do have to prune it to open it up though. I replanted a rooted section of it this spring. In the photo I posted here two weeks ago, you can see it--it's that big yellow shrub. I see there's also a variegated one called Silver Beauty. I'd like one if I didn't have three already.

I didn't know that nandina berries are toxic. I only get one stem of flowers so I'll be sure to prune it off. It doesn't add anything to the shrub anyway.

Hello! I haven’t forgotten I owe some Houzz friends an update! We did receive a concept proposal from designer after her visit. We had email discussion about concept vision & now are accepting her proposal. She did tell us it’ll be @ 4 weeks before she can work on our design. We expected that. She also outlined the steps & process clearly. So, after acceptance of her proposal, we wait! For installation, we’ll ask for bids from her preferred contractors as well as from the company that installed our back yard pavers & water feature years ago and just did the remodel of that water feature. The owner of that company told us he’d installed several of this designer’s plans, some of which involved extensive hardscapes on slopes. He spoke highly of her designs, measurements & layouts. For installation it might come down to earliest availability - if costs from installers are comparable. I like to spend my $$ with local business so we’ll see.

Thanks for the update. Exciting!

Very exciting. Please post after photos!

Hi all, My great front yard project started last Thursday! Some things lined up & the installer we wanted had another customer reschedule their project so he had an opening before his next scheduled. We had assumed Sept / Oct for ours but this timing helps with plant availability & we’re currently in more normal summer temp ranges - both huge pluses for doing it now. So, no time like the present!

The landscape designer did a good job with our design by incorporating elements already in place in our landscape & building on them. 10 of my dwarf & mini conifers are being relocated - I’m accepting risk of losing & replacing later. The installer assures me of his great success even in heat waves in moving plants & seeing them survive with proper hole prep & large enough root balls dug. We’ll keep fingers crossed!

The design process was interesting. The designer did a site visit when we discussed my general vision. I gave her a written list of plants I wanted to stay put & general thoughts about points important to me - low maintenance, not formal but not country or cottage garden etc. She did note that I was very specific with my wants. My reply - Well, isn’t that helpful & more productive? 😁 Next steps were the still pics & video taken of the yard & house, exact measurements taken with all utilities marked & the house, driveway etc. measured out. That process took a couple hours with two people working. Next, I received an emailed PDF of the design & plant list for review. I had design printed in 2’x 3’ size to be able to really study it! This process happened 2 more times to get to the final. The changes made between designs were reducing number of plants & changes to flow of path as well as some changes in plant types. We also had an hour long phone meeting to iron out & clarify some points. Designer strongly pushed for adding a tree which I was resisting. I did come around to see the value but then the choice was hard. I rejected the first - a black tulip magnolia, & wound up rejecting the second, a small crape myrtle - which is represented on this plan at lower right of the larger yard on left of house. Some of you may have seen my other post soliciting advice on the CM. I made the change to a Fire Glow Japanese Maple after this plan was final. This tree was suggested by another Houzzer, a retired garden PRO here in my PNW.

The design doesn’t include a dry creek bed which I thought it would to fill space & reduce # of plants if nothing else. Designer said there’s not enough room to create a proper one. Ok! Large landscape boulders added instead. We asked the installer about creating berms & mounds to prevent a flat scape filled with plants. Yes! Stay tuned & I’ll post some pics here next. The design shown here represents mature plants. The 2 trees will be 15 gal size, the shrubs a combo of 5 gal, 3 gal. The ground covers, grasses, lavendars etc are 1 gal. There’s a good mix of evergreen & perennial. The yellow dotted lines are existing plants / trees staying in place. The blue dotted lines are existing & transplanted. The granite pagoda & 1 chimney pot are relocated.

So exciting! Thanks for the continued updates!

This is so awesome! I love the winding path, and I think it will be beautiful to have the Japanese maple. It’s definitely good that you were very specific with your wants. It’s probably good that you don’t have room for the dry creek bed. We had one at our last house, and it was really difficult to keep up with the weeds around the rocks. I’m so excited to see the progress!

The plan looks nice!

I have Fire Glow. To be honest, I only like it in spring when it's very red, but it's not much different than the common Bloodgood. Maybe it stays redder in full shade but mine gets full sun except for midday. It turns a dull red and green with the first hot weather and stays like that until the leaves fall. I would prefer a JM with fall color too.

Keeping my fingers crossed for you that we don't have a heat wave in August!

Hi Eileen. Can you send me a pic of your FG? It is compared to the Bloodgood which I had at last home. The one I saw at nursery had much more deeply cut leaves. What I’m told is siting of tree is important to show its best attribute that is described by its name. It’s best to be back lit by light. That sounds perfect since my home faces west & I’ll see it backlit in afternoon until sunset. What I hope is that the combo of the white flowered Bobos around the tree along with the varigated yellow Osmanthus will set off the tree color. There’s a definite color theme in this plan - yellow/red/purple - blue/white. I already had that going on & designer used it. The existing maple I have in border is a Crimson Queen so I think the red at opposite sides of front yard will be pretty.

Yes - please no heat wave! I was sorry the crew wasn’t working the past 2 days. They seem to take weekends off!

Ours is on the north side but gets morning and afternoon sun, only shaded by the house midday. It does get backlit but the PM sun can also burn it. When we had that terrible June heatwave a few years ago, the top leaves burned to a crisp so I am careful to water it well when the forecast is over 90.

You can see it in the first photo I posted here. That must be mid-July judging by what's blooming and it was either last year or 2022. Right now the leaves are fully green.

Eileen - I think I found your pic of maple - 3 months ago & it’s surrounded by hosta & Japanese forrest grass - looks like. So the bed is shade & top where tree is - sun? I like the openess of your tree. My Bloodgood was very dense. The site for my tree is full sun from south & west. It will be interesting to see how mine does. I’m so wanting a JM that I’m willing to try this one. I just couldn’t get excited about either the tulip magnolia or the crape myrtle. I’m looking forward to seeing how this tree does. I will coddle it for a year or two if necessary.

I bought it as a bonsai tree 10-12 years ago. It was only a foot tall. I repotted it and planted it after a few years. It's now 12' tall.

The bed is mostly sun but it's moist near the house so I can grow some shade plants there.

Front yard project complete - a few details to work out on the zones for irrigation. Some of the plants weren’t available in the 1 gal size requested but nursery sent 4” pots of the plants. That’s the lavender, Gold Strike juniper ground cover. I’m on a wait list for an order of the 1 gal size gold strike. It’s slow growing so I’d like to upsize it soon. It’s the tiny yellow dots along sidewalk

It looks beautiful!

Looks wonderful, enjoy!

Wow! What a treat it will be to get to walk through that gorgeous garden on the way to the backyard!

Gorgeous was the first word that came to my mind!

Lovely!! I hope you post some progression photos over the next few years. Congratulations!!! Looks wonderful!

Thank you all for your kind words. It sure does change the look of our home! There are more than a handful of no lawn front yards in my small neighborhood. Ours doesn’t look like any of the others. It looks a bit empty but I didn’t want it to be overplanted & crowded in 2 years. I see lots of mulch being spread in our future! I’ll gladly pay to have that done - the new mulch smell is too much for me. We’ve received lots of positive comments from immediate neighbors & all those walking by. Our neighborhood is very flat & only has one entrance so it’s a great walking area - barely any street traffic. I do take seasonal pics of my yard because it’s interesting to look back. 10 of my dwarf & mini conifers were transplanted - my fingers are crossed they all survive!

A couple more pics up close. We seem to have created a bit of a Japanese or Zen garden up close - peaceful! I’m hoping the patches of elfin thyme spread in the space inside the path. The flagstone path that was there was pulled up & some thyme left in place where it didn’t need to be dug up for any purpose. We replanted a few patches here & there. We used some pieces of the old path flagstone for the granite pagoda house to sit on & the small bird bath I added as well as the chimney pot that’s now in a new spot as seen in 2nd pic. The flagstone bases look so much nicer than the aggregate squares those things were sitting on. A neighbor asked what was going to be done with all the rest of the flagstone & the aggregate brick border around the lawn. Nothing. They took it all to use in their back yard! Saved that material from being dumped! How great is that!?

Congratulations. I always call this the hair transplant stage where everything looks too small and ‘plunked’. It will fill in soon. My first two years we had to do tons of mulching (we started with a DUMP TRUCK LOAD of arborist mulch!). Now three years in the plants have filled in and we just have to mulch the edges. The rest takes care of itself. We now have amazing soil from all the rotting organic matter where we just had compacted clay before.

HALLETT & Co. - Thanks! I remember the pics you shared of your yard & the progression of it. I do see lots of mulching in our future! Some of the plants will stay smaller & my hope is they survive. Those are the 10 mini & dwarf conifers that were relocated. We’ll see next spring I guess. The large balls on each side of the small bird bath are the largest of them - 2 ”Little Gem” dwarf Norway Spruce. The largest one is at max size for it - supposedly. The 4 Osmanthus Goshiki false holly - 1 is in foreground of 3rd pic - will be the largest shrubs out there - maybe 3’x3’ - they can be larger but that’s about size I’ll keep them at. The hydrangea Bobo’s are about the only thing that will need annual pruning, the pennisetum grasses - 2 kinds, Hameln & Little Bunny will need annual cleanup. Hopefully the total maintenance need of this new scape will be much less intensive than the lawn was. We’re still seeing people strolling by who stop, look, point & take pics! If we’re outside they ask questions and always make positive remarks. My little doggie is being well entertained from her window seat perch so all is good.

The deciduous plants are the maples, Bobo Hydrangeas, Concord barberry. I don’t cut the dead blossoms from Hydrangeas until early spring

The red Crimson queen on far right at back of truck is in my yard

KW, your garden is really beautiful! The colors are gorgeous, and you can see that there’s a strong structure and plenty of room for the garden to mature. You did an amazing job!

It's gorgeous in fall! Imagine in a few years when everything is bigger.

I'm glad you posted because I've been wanting to find this post to tell you that my Fire Glow JM has incredible color this year. I'm not sure it's ever been this red. A few leaves are curled up though and I don't know what that means. My laceleaf JM is also a brilliant orange and gold this year.

Hi @Eileen - thanks so much for posting back here! Good news on your FG. I just posted pics of most of my JM’s on bill’s 2024 fall color thread - link here:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6469444/fall-color-thread-2024#29292483

I am already anticipating next spring when another growth spurt should occur. It’s interesting that the 4 Goshinki false holly /Osmanthus that looked the same size when planted now have very obvious differences. The one on left in 1st pic has a solid 4” new top growth & the other 3 just have a few branches that sprouted up. I’m betting those plants start taking up more space pretty fast! Glad we gave them room. We do plan to have fresh mulch laid with the hose blower method company early next spring. It has been so easy to spot errant weeds & pop them right out. We’re loving the path that bisects the yard - makes it so easy to walk through it. I am especially enjoying the nice view from my front door & office that’s at front of house. Instead of gazing at grass, street & side fence across the street, my eye stops at my yard. Recently, a person walking through my neighborhood from a nearby hood, came to our door asking permission to take pics & for info about who designed plan. What she remarked on the most is the obvious color plan of plantings & she was noting that it was aging from spectacular when Bobos in bloom to really pretty with all the plants that are providing color shows. She also remarked how different our home looks without its standard large green turf front. Her words - it went from ”nice house” to ”wow - look at that pretty home”. I’m only sorry we didn’t make the decision to remove turf sooner.

Just took a look at the link. Looking good in the back yard! Your Harp String is beautiful! My Fire Glow doesn't have any purple, just all bright red.

Remarkable transformation KW PNW Z8!!

Thank you Bill! I’m already really looking forward to spring when the first thing we’ll do is a big refresh of mulch & then sit on our porch & watch the spring wake up and growth spurt. I’m happy we didn’t over plant for an immediate really full look.

A fresh layer of dark fine Hemlock mulch will be added in a week or two by installers.

This is from February. An old plant I had & transplanted 4 2’ wide pieces of it. It’s a polygala, spreads very slowly by runners. I love the little flowers at end of winter.

So beautiful! I am excited to see how it develops in the next few years…

It’s filling in well and looks like it was always supposed to be this way. Enjoy!

Beautifully done!

@Flo Mangan - I really appreciate your postive comments on the result of my big project Flo! I did worry about having too many different ornament pieces scattered around. I do like yard art that’s different & wanted to use my treasures but not create clutter. The larger Asian lantern house is 3 pieces & granite - heavy! The 2 columns with shiny balls in them are vintage chimney pots from UK. We brought these with us from our last home. Yes, this landscape definitely needs less water, also fewer chemicals than turf to maintain. That was one goal. There is in ground irrigation. Existing system was converted to drips & 3 zones. Different sized emitters used for the various water needs with larger plants having multiple emitters. I don’t think I’ve ever said here that I found my landscape designer here on Houzz! She did a great job creating a cohesive color scheme using the predominately yellow & red I already had. She also did well with creating a plan that used all 10 of my existing mini & dwarf conifers. Many were moved to new locations & they survived. It was fun working with a designer. Although I have a good base of plant knowledge, I didn’t have the confidence to plan a layout. She taught me about landscapes needing ”exclamation points” so I have 3 pencil hollies on inside of path. She also convinced me a tree was needed. So I have that lovely Fire Glow maple which gardengal, a poster here in PNW suggested. I owe my pretty new landscape to Houzzers!

That’s such a wonderful story. It’s perfect. And every time you look or wander through, it will evoke so many positive memories! Makes me so happy to hear how you enjoyed the process too!!