A small Edmonds landscape gets a makeover: problem solved

February 4, 2014

A small  Edmonds backyard renovation- Before and after…

Often times it is a problem that sparks a new landscaping project.  In the case of this small Edmonds backyard, the area below was the problem: the ground had been sinking.

Edmonds backyard landscaping 'Before'

Edmonds backyard landscaping ‘Before’

Our best guess was that when the house was built there had been a large tree removed from the site and the remaining roots had been decomposing over time, causing the depression in the grass area.  The owners had spent a good amount of money in past years having the grass removed, filling the area up with soil, and replacing the grass.  They asked us if we could do just that for them again. But since that solution hadn’t worked so well before we came up with another solution, which was to replace the grass with a simple flagstone seating area and plantings.

With this solution we figured if the ground settles again, as it most likely will, the flagstone pieces can be lifted up and more gravel can be added underneath it.  We like this solution because it also gave the owners a place to sit, relax, and watch the birds. And because anytime we get to replace grass with stone and plants we jump at the chance!

Edmonds backyard landscaping

Edmonds backyard landscape plan

Once they saw the idea on paper they were sold and we went to work. They also chose to replace the simple bird bath with a drilled basalt stone bubbler that would have a soothing sound and still allow the birds to have place to bathe.  We planted the area with low growing Japanese forest grass, Sweetflag, Hellebores, Daphnes, dwarf Balsam Fir, Heucheras, and ferns, which will provide low maintenance color, texture and a wonderful fragrance.

Edmonds Backyard Landscape

Edmonds Backyard Landscape ‘After’

The owners love their new space- and can’t wait to have some warm weather to enjoy it!

 

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