This homeowner’s existing yard was overgrown in the back and too hilly to mow in the front. This was overwhelming them and greatly limited their ability to utilize the space how they wished. They opted to invest in a complete front and backyard redesign.
It was a business of building walls, water management, and renovation: When we were done the front yard boasted a dramatic, handfitted stone and mortar retaining wall, accented by six concrete-capped pillars and featuring a central concrete step pathway with double safety railings. The back contained a patio and retaining walls, along with some water feature delights: A previously buried and forgotten basin, restored by hand, and a truly elegant water management technique in the installation of a very subtle slope to the driveway.
The completed project was a design for real life and real people: In addition to the safety railings in the front, our work here included two extra large raised planter beds for growing food. The back yard design also accommodated their four-pawed family members with a mulch run and a relief patch!
HSB Concrete built the new concrete driveway, Ksquared Landscapes built everything else.
If you have your coffee, then lets dive in to learn how we transformed this yard.
The first obstacle was removing weeds and sorting piles of the leftover material from previous home projects to determine what was still usable and what wasn’t. When clearing the vegetation in the backyard, we uncovered a buried water feature basin that the homeowner wanted to revive. This water feature needed a new stone rim and a restored dry stacked wall to hold back the soil. This dry stack wall was accomplished entirely with stone that was found buried in the homeowner’s yard.
After sorting through all the leftover material, 25% of the proposed stone wall was built using salvaged stone from their yard while the rest of the stone used was sourced from a local quarry. The new curved pathway and landing at the bottom of the steps, were built from salvage material found in the yard. Both of these features helped to lower the cost of the project. The addition of handrails on both sides of the stairs and a pathway that is sloped as minimally as possible increases the accessibility to the front door.
During a downpour, we noticed the downspout on the front corner of the house was not properly draining into the existing pipe under the driveway, causing flooding right next to the foundation. This was rerouted into a new rain garden behind the new wall in the front yard. We added additional drainage pipes that would allow the overflow to pass under the retaining wall and daylight on the downhill side without compromising the stone wall.
To help alleviate the stormwater issues in the backyard, the downspouts on the northside of the house were routed into buried pipes below the new driveway and emptied into a new rain garden. The driveway had to be pitched properly to drain into the backyard rain garden and not the garage. To ensure proper infiltration in the backyard rain garden, we removed 12 inches of extremely compacted clay and added compost and topsoil that was tilled in to increase the infiltration rate of the soils. From the rain garden, the stormwater then flows into a dry creek bed and finally exits into the utility corridor behind the back fenceline through new weep holes in the existing stone wall.
Next to the water feature is a paver patio that is constructed 100% with material salvaged from their yard. A new structural stone retaining wall ties into the water feature that also serves as a seat wall. This seat wall now provides one of the best seats for enjoying the new backyard.
Now that the yard had been tamed, we had to address how we can make the yard dog friendly. First thing included a new wood privacy fence so the four-legged family member didn’t venture off. The wood posts for the back fence were left at varying heights so the homeowner would be able to hang decorations or lights in the future. Second was providing some lawn space and a mulch run so their dog and do what dogs like to do.
