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Small Spaces / Urban Gardening
clsleger

Grassless side yard

C. L. Sleger
8 years ago

When I bought the house in 2003 the west side yard was a dry weedy strip with hard clay soil. The old path of limestone slabs provided the inspiration for a grassless side yard.

I dug everything up, amended the soil, and put in thyme, lavender, dianthus, creeping phlox and sedums. At first they looked like hair plugs:

Now, in late May and early June:

The garden is considerably taller in autumn. This is Zone 5 so you see lots of asters, goldenrod, grasses, and Autumn Joy sedum.

Featured Answer
  • ianna
    8 years ago

    pretty. I too have removed my grass and replaced it with perennials

    Comments (13)

    • hoverfly - London
      8 years ago

      What a wonderful little garden. It's great to see how it has filled in - very inspirational!

      C. L. Sleger thanked hoverfly - London
    • lgteacher
      8 years ago

      How beautiful! Your love of plants is evident.

      C. L. Sleger thanked lgteacher
    • User
      8 years ago

      Wow! To someone like me whose garden is in the "hair plug" stage (great description of the look BTW) your garden is a huge inspiration.

      C. L. Sleger thanked User
    • PRO
      Linda Greenberg Landscape & Design, LLC
      8 years ago

      As a professional landscape designer, I'm constantly working with small courtyards or pathway possibilities that will eliminate or lessen the footprint of caring for turf throughout the year. Your perennial garden is beautiful when in bloom, but I would also suggest adding formed plant materials like a Dwarf Boxwood that would carry your eye throughout the pathway. The Boxwoods will anchor the various 'chaotic' perennial spaces with evergreen form.

      Linda Greenberg, Landscape Designer

      704-995-7173

      linda@lglandscapes.net

      C. L. Sleger thanked Linda Greenberg Landscape & Design, LLC
    • posierosie_zone7a
      8 years ago

      So beautiful and so much variety and change throughout the seasons. Thank you for sharing.

      C. L. Sleger thanked posierosie_zone7a
    • SweetMonkeyCheese Z9 Tampa
      8 years ago

      Wow!

    • rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
      8 years ago
      last modified: 8 years ago

      C.L., how perfectly charming.

      Dwarf boxwood, Linda Greenberg? Really? Boring.

      C. L. Sleger thanked rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
    • dg
      8 years ago

      Your floral path draws me in! Very nice :)

      C. L. Sleger thanked dg
    • dirtygardener73
      8 years ago

      GORGEOUS! I had the same problem with a grassless side yard that was mostly marl soil -- impossible to dig or plant in for the most part. I started by planting a tiny red-leaf plum, then one by one, I started digging little holes and filling them with compost, planting and planting. I covered it with leaves every year and let them decompose. It took a long, long time (almost 10 years), but finally, I ended up with beautiful, black loamy soil that would grow anything and everything. I miss that house, but not the work of that big yard.

      C. L. Sleger thanked dirtygardener73
    • Kaillean (zone 8, Vancouver)
      7 years ago

      I love it! It's beautiful!

      C. L. Sleger thanked Kaillean (zone 8, Vancouver)
    • PRO
      Van Zelst Inc
      7 years ago

      Beautiful work. I love the variety of heights and textures. You may want to sink some of those steppers into the earth so you don't trip on them.

      C. L. Sleger thanked Van Zelst Inc
    • teeka0801(7aNoVa)
      7 years ago

      what an inspiration! I love natural looking gardening...it's harder than one might think! That's why I get SO upset when I see folks chopping down the staggered, natural forests and replacing with those rows of trees...yuck...and they get paid big bucks for this??!! It looks so fake, don't they realize it?

      Sorry, got side tracked....fabulous!!

      C. L. Sleger thanked teeka0801(7aNoVa)
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