As part of our backyard landscaping budget, $25k was to be allotted towards all the plants and greenery. Coming from someone who has no idea the going price for plants and trees, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around spending twenty-five thousand for that. And I’m aware that since this isn’t my area of expertise I might just need to surrender to the expert (who we have full confidence in, by the way). Well, we got the plant plan and it’s everything we wanted–overflowing with trees, shrubs and plants to bring back that garden retreat we loved so much in our courtyard. The downside? The plant plans they gave us are actually $50k over the $25k allotted allowance. (Why do they do that?!)
Plant Landscape Plan
Although we love love the plan, we love sticking to our budget more, and so we’re literally trimming down on plants and going for younger ones that will mature over the years instead of 12′ trees. For example, we don’t need all of those green giants going around the whole perimeter of the backyard! Looks like there are about 50 of them, and I think we only need about half. We’re focusing on softening the hardscaping with trees and greenery, planting boxwoods in front of the back retaining wall and the rest is going to be pretty simple. It’s also worth mentioning that these plans were drawn up before we added the outdoor shower, so there’s a whole area of plants that has become irrelevant.
We’re still in the process of paring things down, but here’s how we’re going about it. Although I don’t necessarily know a lot about plants, I can look at something and know what I like and what I don’t like. Do I know the names of things?–No. Taking a trip to a local nursery and snapping photos of the names of things helps! This is what I did to inspire me, and I sent photos of what I do like to the landscape designer–nothing that’s tropical, nothing yellow, nothing with thorns, and nothing too in-your-face flowery. I personally find it incredibly helpful having a local landscape designer who knows what will do well here in our yard to help plan all of this out.
Sun Hat | Top | Denim Shorts | Sandals
I’m fully relying on our landscape designer to know exactly where things are going to grow the best, how much light they will need, and watering needs! That being said, here’s a list of all the plants, shrubs, and trees she suggested to use in our backyard. Can’t wait to see everything literally come to life!
A tentative list of the plants we plan to include in our backyard:
- Green Giant
- Tea Olive
- Baby Gem Boxwoods
- Limelight Hydrangeas
- Treeform Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea
- Bloodfood Japanese Maple
- Tamukeyama Japanese Maple
- Flame Thrower Eastern Redbud
- October Magic Carpet Camellia
- Christmas Carol Camellia
- Steeds Japanese Holly
- West Coast English Laurel
- Phenomenal Lavender
- Cypress
I’m a little unsure about some of them (feels like a lot of pink flowers for my taste), but they want to plant NEXT WEEK, so I’m trying to edit in a few things before dig day!
keep the tea olives! they smell divine!!!!!
Watch on Amazon Prime Gardener’s World (BBC program) and the 2022 Chelsea Garden Series. Gardens can help one’s sense of well being. Don’t do something because you feel rushed. Research! Let your moving truck company nightmare be a reminder. Then, plant in the Fall.
Watch on Amazon Prime Gardener’s World (BBC program) and the 2022 Chelsea Garden Series. Gardens can help one’s sense of well being. Don’t do something because you feel rushed. Research! Let your moving truck company nightmare be a reminder. Then, plant in the Fall.
The plans always over do it and the leap of growth in yr 3 makes everything too crowded.
Limelight hydrangeas are my favorite. They are so pretty as is the vanilla/strawberry one. They make great cuttings and the limelight’s dry so nicely that the cuttings can go into fall. FYI they aren’t necessarily l white but sort of have tinge of yellow/lime color . They will break up all the pink color you have. They also grow huge and make Great Wall of flowers. Check out oldsilvershed on IG. Stunning account.