Started Landscaping, sort of

After staring at a relatively huge and empty back yard, I decided to start developing it a bit. Ultimately, I think there will be a paver patio above the slope, and a deck along the house, but I'm starting with the easier stuff. I used 4 x 4s to make steps up the middle of the gentle slope, and the area behind one group of rocks is all native wild flowering plants and choke berry shrubs. When I started, I wanted to have nothing but native plant species, but this quickly expanded considering availability and other things being on clearance.

Behind the rocks to the left is a maple and some scotch broom, which is noxious in other places but not in my zone.

Along the steps are hens and chicks, juniper tree and shrub, german thyme, russian sage, goldenrod and some other things, and the steps are lined with mexican feather grass. Anyone else gotten into landscaping? Any stories, pics, tips, etc? I'm in zone 5 - 6 (KC, MO).

I'm hoping things will really fill in over the next year. Still planting more goldenrod, coneflower and a few pear trees just above the slope near the top of the steps. These are bad pics from this morning and it rained last night, so things look a little beat down.

Sweet!

Planting things is always therapuetic.

Rob R.

There is a severe lack of a dirt track in your back yard. There's plenty of space, so where's the go-kart?

I used to be a landscaping contractor. Good work if you have decent clients - rare.

One thing I always avoided was straight lines - they don't look natural with plantings, so we offset plants like a sine wave.

With my own yard, everything is designed around what's easiest to mow around. Having nooks and crannies you can't get to easily to trim the grass sucks. I use lots of borders to help keep grass from creeping in as well. You can also use an edging tool to create a nice line between the garden and lawn. It's easy to maintain the line as long as you don't run it over with the mower a lot.