Frontyard Landscape

Jess & Julie Stryker

Ventura, California

 

Click on any photo for a larger image.

We finally got around to replacing the old landscape that was in our front yard. It was a bit embarrassing to be a landscape architect and have such a bad-looking yard. It took almost a year to replace, as we did most of the work ourselves. Removal of the old trees was contracted out to a tree-removal company. They ground out the tree roots, returning 3 times to grind more roots. We finally rented a back hoe to tear out roots. It still took 3 months to dig out all the remaining tree roots that were in areas the machinery couldn't reach by hand!

So, how will this landscape look down the road? A little over-planted and busy. First, I like the "jungle look". Second, I wanted a lot of different plants for reference, so there are a lot more plant varieties than normally would be used in a landscape this size. It is intentionally designed to showcase a number of palm species. The landscape installation was more or less completed in November 2006. However, like most landscapes, it will be an evolving work over time.

The general design theme is "Gilligan's Island". What can I say? I guess I watched too much TV as a kid!

-Jess

Before

This is what the yard looked like when we bought the house.
This photo actually makes it look better than it was.

 

We started by killing the crabgrass lawn.

 

The roots of this Carrotwood Tree were a major problem, because they were surfacing in
the lawn and breaking the sidewalk. The city owned the tree and agreed to cut it down
if we would pay for installing a new tree.

 

We did some major grading work, digging out a dry creek bed and creating berms.
It was all done by hand with a shovel. Some palm trees and a few other plants are already installed.
We were able to get them free, so they were installed a bit ahead of schedule.

 

We continued to have problems with roots from the Carrotwood tree.
We finally broke down and rented a back-hoe to dig them out.

 

Julie takes a turn at the controls.

 

Our son, Nathan, and grand kids, Johanna and Quinn, came over to play with the "big toy".

 

We uncovered the main water pipe to the house and discovered it was in very bad condition.
Since we had the yard dug up, we decided to replaced the pipe.
This is the trench for the pipe, dug with the back-hoe.

 

Nathan provided the muscle to run the rototiller.
We tilled lots of soil amendments into the soil to create good planting conditions.

 

We installed new irrigation valves, water filters, and a new water pressure regulator,
since our water pressure here is extremely high.

 

All new irrigation was installed, with an extremely efficient sub-surface drip system.
The irrigation water is applied by tubes under the lawn. There are no sprinklers, no
over-spray, no run-off. All of the irrigation water goes directly into the plant's root zone.

 

Irrigation Details: The lawn is watered with a subsurface drip system, using Netafim Techline CV™ drip tube with the Netafim Techfilter™. The tube and filter are sold together as a kit. I paid about $500 US for the kit, along with the fittings, valves and stakes for my small, 500 square foot lawn. This makes it about 20% more expensive than a sprinkler system. How it works: the Techfilter™ injects an extremely small amount of herbicide into the water. This herbicide does not hurt the lawn but is sufficient to keep roots from growing into the drip irrigation tubes. My experience has been that without the herbicide the system is ruined by roots within a few years. If you wish to install a subsurface drip system, I strongly recommend you use a herbicide based system like this one or the similar Toro DL-2000™ product. The shrub areas are watered with a standard drip system using drip tubes and emitters installed on the ground surface. The drip tube was then covered with a 2" deep layer of medium size fir bark to hide it from view. The bark also greatly reduces weed growth. (Nothing I know of will completely eliminate weeds in a landscape.)

Irrigation update (Feb. 2008). The Netafim subsurface system on the lawn has been a disappointment. My lawn has had numerous dry spots that developed shortly after the sod was installed, and I have been unable to eliminate them by adjusting the water run times. Even running the system for an hour every day has been unsuccessful. I had used a similar product on commercial systems several years ago with success, so the problem is specific to my situation. It appears the problem is due to a combination of porous soil and insufficient soil compaction. The idea of the subsurface drip is that the water comes out of the emitters (holes) on the tubes and then it moves through the soil, by capillary action, up and sideways to wet the entire area. However the soil in my yard is very porous and was dug up to remove roots, so it was very loose. As previously noted we rototilled the soil to remix it and put a lot of organic amendments into it. After we aerated the soil we then compacted it to industry standards using a water-filled roller. We then installed the sod and compacted it again using the weighted roller. Unfortunately, while this is the normal procedure for installation of a new lawn, this apparently was not sufficient on our very porous soil to create enough contact between the soil particles to allow the water to move by capillary action.

To confirm the problem I dug up a couple of areas and found that the water was coming out of the emitters on the tubes as it should, so the system is working correctly. However, as suspected, the water is going straight down in the soil and only wetting the area directly below the tubes. I believe this is because the soil needs to be compacted a lot more firmly when using the subsurface system than occurs when using the standard weighted roller compaction method I used. This is probably not as big an issue on soils that are not as porous as mine. I am hoping that the soil will continue to settle and infill with organic debris from the grass over time. As it does, that should make the soil less permeable and hopefully the problem will disappear. The lesson learned is that the subsurface drip system does not work well in porous, well-draining soils, and if it is to be used in a well drained soil it is important to over-compact the soil. I will continue to update my report here. We have had some very heavy rains recently, often rain will help compact the soil and move organic materials down lower in the soil profile where they can increase the capillary action of the water.

So is your soil too porous for subsurface drip? Will you have the same problem? Here's a tip for determining how porous your soil is. I almost never see any run-off from my yard when it rains. The water doesn't create little ponds in the yard, it just soaks in. So if that describes your yard you may want to stick with a standard sprinkler system rather than sub-surface drip. If your soil is less porous, then the subsurface drip system can work well. I have used it successfully on lawns in several locations, but in all those cases the soil was compacted using heavy tractor mounted compaction equipment.

The Finished Landscape:

The finished result.

 

Painting the house is on our "to do" list. We want to change the color, but can't decide what to use!

 

We built the locking mailbox after we spotted someone going through our mail.

 

The odd-looking tree behind our house on the right is a Pacific Wax Myrtle that is completely covered
with blood-red trumpet vine. If you click on the picture and look at the full size image,
you can see the red flowers. It's rather hard to tell, but this "trumpet vine tree" is in our neighbor's yard.

 

The tall palm at right center is a Queen Palm. Other palms next to it are too small to be noticed yet,
but include a Majesty Palm and a King Palm.

 

Notice the new city street tree in the parking strip that replaces the Carrotwood Tree.

 

The grass growing between the rocks is Blue Fescue. Further back on both sides of the creek are
strawberries (yes, the edible kind!) The neighborhood kids eat most of them! 80% of the nation's fresh strawberries are
grown within 10 miles of our house, so we had to have some in our yard.

 

The creek bed contains more than a ton of white granite river rock, along with smaller stones and gravel.

 

There are lots of Lily-of-the-Nile plants! They form the common foundation for the landscape
that ties it together. They are planted along the creek bed.

 

Our original plan was to replace the front walk with wood, but the cost of the wood was prohibitive.

 

The bushy palm in the center is a Senegal Date Palm. It will eventually grow to be multiple 25' tall trunks.

 

The plant in the pot is a oddity called Centipede Plant. Next to it is Umbrella Plant, a smaller cousin of Papyrus.

 

The railing is treated pealer cores, painted brown. The retaining wall is 2x6 treated fir, bolted into the concrete sidewalk.

 

3/4" diameter rope is tacked in place using hundreds of finishing nails driven through the rope at various angles
to lock it in place. The nails keep the rope from sagging as it gets older. The ends of the rope are held
in place and kept from unraveling using electrical cable staples.

 

This planter left of the door wasn't changed to much. We added a Lily-of-the-Nile, Coreopsis and a pot full of Pansies.
Everything else was here when we bought the house.

 

Common question: Why not use a real water feature rather than the dry creek? The answer is that it would result in too much maintenance work. After the plants have grown for a couple of years, most of the creek bed will be covered with lush foliage and not visible. We will then remove much of the rock, and reuse it elsewhere. The plan is to add a motion-sensor operated sound system with outdoor speakers hidden in the creek bed area that will play recordings of flowing creek water. The conduits for the speaker wires and future lighting are already installed.

The Flowering plants:

Bougainvillea "Red" .

 

Canna.

 

Yellow Trailing Gazania.

 

Lantana "Confetti".

 

Purple Trailing Lantana.

 

Yellow Mounding Lantana.

 

Sea-Lavender.

 

Pink Verbena.

 

Plant Pallette:

Trees:

Shrubs:

Perennials:

Grasses:

Note: Always check to be sure a plant is suitable for your climate before purchasing it. Just because a nursery sells it doesn't mean it is suitable! This is especially true of nurseries at chain stores. Some of the plants I have used that are labeled above as perennials are sold in colder climates, but are used there as "annuals". Remember my house is located in one of the most uniform-temperature areas in the United States. It almost never drops below freezing, and we seldom see temperatures over 90° F.

Text and Images by Jess Stryker. Copyright © Jess Stryker, 2006. All rights reserved. Permission is granted for student use of photos for non-profit school/class projects.