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http://travelobsession.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/loving-this/

First time poster who really enjoys keeping up with your blog.

A couple of suggestions…

Have you considered concrete for parts of your hardscape? It’s very versatile. It can take any shape you like, it can be stamped, polished, acid stained, you can put all kinds of things in it for interest. Metal, rock, glass, color? I’ve seen really nice minimal modern type applications using concrete. You could extend your current little slab with ease. Incorporated with some wood to add warmth, and then using a variety of low maintenence plants to add some organic appeal. Also, if you’re on a budget have you considered bartering services on craigslist. My husband has had many offers to exchange his handyman skills for things such as web-design services, logo design etc. Two parties come to an agreement on how to exchange services and everyone wins!

I know, it’s not exactly modern, but having a fence will definitely give you more clarity and definition of the space you have. Seeing into your neighbors yards doesn’t help when you are trying to envision your own.

You might want to check out The City Gardener (http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hctgr/) – he may have some ideas for you too.

Gardens take a while to get going. The hardscaping is the worst part, but from reading your blog, I have a feeling you’ll come up with a brilliant solution.

I admire your attitude too about decorating your house/garden for yourselves, not for future owners. I don’t know what the future holds for us in our current house (I love it, but with one baby on the way and the hope for a second in the future, we may outgrow it unless we can add on). But, even though this may not be our “forever house,” we’ve decided to go ahead and decorate it the way we like — including patterned wallpaper in three of the rooms. Life is too short to live with taupe walls in every room just because that’s tastefully neutral for some future, unknown buyer (who knows — that future buyer may love our wallpaper!)

As for your garden, the one thing I wondered about was cedar shavings on the pathways instead of pea gravel? It seems those would be easier to schlep through your house, if necessary, and would be fine to have with dogs. I know the aesthetic isn’t quite the same, but if you had the modern raised beds that you desire the overall look would still be very contemporary.

Another thing that I think could look cool in your space in a modern fence, perhaps with horizontal instead of vertical slats, perhaps even painted a dark colour like charcoal? I’ve seen some neat things too with trellises made of string or wire in a bold geometric pattern with vines trained along them. Lots of impact.

J: I would loooove to start by putting up a beautiful fence, but the expense of doing so is very likely to be more than we can afford (everything we do is on a tight budget). Fencing is pretty expensive, even if you do it yourself…and even if you go with standard-issue stockade panels. We have a guy coming later today to give us a quote on a fence, so we’ll see how that goes. The issue with the patio/deck situation is that there’s already a bunch of cement out there, as well as an ugly 6×7 deck (you can kind of see it in the photo above), and we’re not sure we can handle the labor involved with removing either. Also, we live in a city (no driveway, etc.), and permits and insurance are required for both installing a fence and parking a dumpster to remove construction debris. Nothing is simple, and we have so little time to do anything. It’s hard to decide if we want to work with what we have, or if we want to rip EVERYTHING out and start over.

srw: The whole situation is difficult. We’re in the middle of the block, surrounded by people without driveways who don’t even have street access to their own yards. There are a lot of renters, and nobody uses their back yards AT ALL, other than to dump excess trash (as you can see in the photo above). Unfortunately, this isn’t the kind of area where people are hanging out in their gardens and helping their neighbors out with home improvement projects. You should have seen the chaos that went on when we had our mulberry tree cut down the other day. Yikes!

alice: I love a nice grass lawn too, but I don’t want to fight a losing battle. The soil here is very poor, for one thing. I’m not willing to do what would have to be done chemically for a lawn to survive, nor to I believe in the extensive watering that it would require. I want the garden to be as self-sustainable as possible, particularly the parts of it that won’t be producing food. I am looking into other ground coverings, though, that won’t be as high maintenance!

Ani: Thank you, I’ll take a look at those! :)

Ann: Since we most likely won’t be able to remove the existing cement patio and ugly deck that are in place (see above), we can’t follow the “ideal layout” plan that I had posted. A modernist garden like that one really requires materials that we either can’t afford (e.g. bluestone pavers, cedar plank fencing) or can’t realistically get into the yard by ourselves (e.g. gravel). Because of that, we really have to start over with our thinking and try to come up with a plan that’s a lot more “rustic” and that will accommodate the less-appealing features of the garden as it is right now, like the cement patio and the deck (neither of which are large enough to be usable for sitting on!).

Jana: That’s what we’re thinking about (stones with grass or other ground covering in between) right now. Do you have a photo of your garden? I can always use more inspiration! As for our dogs, they are pad-trained (well, the new little guy is still working on it!) so they go inside most of the time. Bruno grew up in the city, so he is plenty fine going on pavement, too. I’m really hoping the garden doesn’t become their toilet, though! :)

I think you had a photo of a dream garden up recently which used a raised bed for a vegetable planter? You can spin that your own way and do a container vegetable garden with wine barrels, troughs, etc. I could see a cluster of containers on each side of the fence, with pea gravel underneath, to break up the look. Maybe a garden bench in between …

I’m the queen of wanna be yard people.

You said you didn’t want it, but to stick up for it, lawn *is* a very affordable way to map out a firm design. Also you could change it later without killing yourself. It’s possible to do something very geometric, I’ve seen very cool things done with interlocking circles, and dogs love it. Oh and not to mention all the summer laying around on it that is possible. But having said all that I do appreciate it is not everyone’s cup of tea. I think I have a British person’s love of lawn :)

I hope you find a solution!