Landscape planning ?

Kitten80

I have been lurking and reading past posts.  If I missed a similar question, sorry!  I wondered if anyone has advice on how to plan out the landscaping for your yard?  We can't afford to hire someone to do this and we have to have a general idea in mind because we have a tree that needs to be transplanted very soon.  We have lots of ideas, but because the yard is wide rather than deep I am having spacial planning issues (I have always preferred and had deep lots rather than wide lots).

We moved in last fall and since DH is out of work we did some minor "experimental" and temporary improvements to our yard this year.  We cut out the few patchy spots along both sides of the house to make gardens to see what would grow here, planted grass seed in the few spots mid-yard that needed help, weeded, and got rid of the nasty ant-infested mulch. 

I am also having a hard time envisioning ripping out the well grown, very green grass.  Silly, huh?  I think it is because the yard right now looks huge because it is green grass in every direction without any fences or visual stopping points.  I worry it will seem small when we get a fence up or rip out grass. 

However, we have a little drop off at the bottom of our property that doesn't look that steep, but is a pain in the butt to mow!!!  There is also a row of baby pine trees the previous owner planted (in a not-so-straight line) with the ones on the left side of the yard at the top of the hill and the right ones more at the bottom, but he failed to cut the recommended circles out around them so we will have to remove some grass anyways (the grass and weeds are growing up through the poor trees and the nursery said cutting a circle around them and mulching will help them grow and establish roots/stay watered).  So it looks like we have to remove a lot of the grass anyways so we have thought about taking it all out so we don't have to struggle with the mower on the hill...

We need to transplant the tree this year so I would like to have an idea of where things may go so we don't place it smack dab where the fence, shed, swing set, etc would be...

If it makes a difference in your advice here are some things we need or would like:

* there is no patio or deck, so we are going to put a patio in next year

* we will have a new grill with the new patio because our grill is on its last dinners

* maybe a 6" fence (there is a new 6" fence along our right side that the neighbor put up and a mini section on the left side the neighbor put up because they hated the old homeowners).

* Swing set

* Shed

* Garden (open to doing a set size like rectangle on one of the side yards or incorporating it in the back area where pine trees are)

Thanks for your advice ladies   I am overwhelmed right now - I want the yard to look nice, not like we just did things one at a time without any thought to it...I think a general plan will help give it a clean appearance and minimize having to re-do work we already did.

nitaw

You sound like you have a lot of stuff going on and need a detailed plan. My suggestion would be to check with a landscape architect/designer and have them draw a plan for your yard. They don't have to plant anything for you. They can draw the plan and you can plant it yourself.

I had a local nursery do a plan for me - it cost like $50, and they gave me plant suggestions and gave me a plan for my front beds.Check with your local nursery to see if they have a similar program. 

Hey Jellisy

If you are looking to save money, you can draw out a plan on graph paper to give you an idea of where things will eventually go.  Our local nursery does garden plans for free although I don't think that their plans would be inclusive enough to cover all the patio, shed, swing set, etc. additions that you are planning.