Home Improvement: Garden Design

Since this board seems to be on the home improvement kick along with me (im H.I. crazy right now), I thought I would share this.

We are a few years out from re-designing our garden (kitchen remodel is #1 on priority list) but I did this mock up to show my 'circle' design to my husband.

Now that i did it, Im really excited about it...too bad I cant do it myself :D

This is my backyard as it is now:


What I want it to look like - complete with koi pond. I couldnt figure out what sort of fencing/plants I would want but you get the idea:

Re: Home Improvement: Garden Design

that looks beautiful!!

did you use some software program to do it? Our back yard is a blank canvas right know....we need to do so much back there!!

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Looks nice! Our backyard has to be done over too and I am itching to do it. But, we have to finish painting the kitchen and wrap up the few other small projects we have going on.

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Thanks Lisa & Sasha...i used photoshop. I really want a koi pond..im a women obsessed with them lately...hahahha

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its beautiful

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stef you never cease to amaze me....

how much sun does your backyard get?

and when you do this, make sure you check out Costco for the teak furniture...they always have benches and stuff like that for SO much less (and those things are expensive!)

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Wow, that's beautiful!! You are a pro. How long do you think it will all take?
I'm on the home improvement kick now, too since we will be moving into our house on Wed!!

I think we need a H.I. board

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Jenny: My backyard gets full southern exposure which is great b/c pretty anything will grow if I take care of it. But as it is now, I dont have very much planting room. I have a patio (which I didnt show in these pics) which I have a few containers and such on that...but i would like to have a few more beds. The front of my house is very shady so its hard to grow anything but impatients and everygreens.

Patio Redo

Thanks for the Costco tip. I bought some wood chairs at Ikea for cheap and those have been great. Target also has some nice stuff.

Star: We definitely CAN NOT do it ourselves. Underneath that cement is steel wire. Its impossible to break thru without professional equipment. I have no idea why its there but it is. We wont be allocating the $$ to have it done for a few years at least...but a girl can dream.

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the steel wire is there to make the concrete stronger...we are in the process of having a cememt slab poured for our shed and I found out that is a very important question to ask about!!

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Thanks Lisa. It definitely makes it stronger. Im just wondering why someone would want to make it so strong for a backyard. It certainly didnt prevent it from cracking b/c its cracked everywhere. Its just impossible to take out without professional equipment now. Otherwise this would be a great project to do over a few weekends...but now we have to pay big bucks to have it done.

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This is beautiful stef and I am sure you can fit the pond in too.
Here is something you can do now, for pretty cheap to get a sorta- kinda look without professionals.
You can build ( or purchases already built) large rounded or square planting area containers- not just small pots but full size ones and fill them with soil and plant in them.That would begin to give the illussion of having done some 'real' work plus let you plants all sorts of great stuff and add tons of color to the area.You can also get a pretty outdoor patio set and put an indoor/outdoor material rug under it.
so even though you cannot do the whole, full look right now you can achieve some it.

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Ohhh one thing about the pond...if you have alot of cats in the neighborhood...you will not have your fish very long!! My next door neighbor would replace his fish every week or so...between the cats and the racoons...we couldnt figure out who was worst!!

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Yea, we have cats. If you make the water level low enough and spray this stuff around, the cats are supossed to be deterred enough to leave it alone. Koi arent so expensive (at least not the ones that we could fit into our pond) so hopefully it wont be a problem.

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That's beautiful!
My FIL has a koi pond in his yard, and birds eat lots of his fish. It's a pain to replace them, but it's so pretty that it's worth it.

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Stef that is gorgeous!!

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Stef, I guess the pool idea is out then. I love the comfortable look of what is to come. What did Luke say when you showed this to him.

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PS what does your kitchen look like now and what improvements are you doing??

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Shamma: A pool would be nice but I would only want the underground ones and they are just too expensive.

I dont have a photo of my kitchen but I will take some photos before we start the renovation. We are taking everything out ... and I mean everything ... and replacing it with new sheetrock, exposing the brick on the back wall, new back door, new cabinets, new appliances, new floor, new lighting, etc...

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Major, major work

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very creative !!

I cant wait to get started on garden design. Im a newbie at it, so i'll know who to ask for great ideas!