Post date: Mar 6, 2016 4:37:53 AM
I commissioned a landscape plan one year ago — before the house was built.
Last Autumn, after the house was built, the landscaper moved the big pile of dirt into berms and mixed in sand and sawdust in some areas. I have spent the past week raking rocks out of the soil, even out of some the berms which were raked smooth (but not very deeply). Some of the berm soil contains considerable sand and sawdust — at least in the top few inches.
Yesterday and today I built the coyote fence to screen the utilities. Well, mostly built, because I am 10 latillas short of what I need. [I planned a 10’ wide fence. But 2x4s only come in 8’ or 12’ lengths. So it is 12’ wide, but I bought 60 latillas to space 2” apart.] The latilla vendor is coming to dig holes for the Juniper and Piñon trees, so he can bring 10 more latillas when he comes.
Today I planted some seed: Flax, California Poppy, Rose hips, and Iris. This required raking the soil to break up dirt clods and remove (yet more) rocks. I also watered the seeded areas, which are mostly on the west slope of the berms along the road. The roses are in front of the coyote fence and the Iris are along my south property line, which gets rain and snow runoff from the neighbor’s house.
I also tried to make a site plan that shows the walkways, existing Siberian Elm trees, berms, and planned Juniper and Piñon trees.
My next task is to integrate the design of the landscape architect into the (now) existing landscape. The berms are much larger than originally planned and we shifted the house to the southwest to stay within the building envelope.
The south patio does not yet exist. It will be smaller than planned by the architect. The waterway from the roof drain will go west to the street rather than piddle out toward the southeast.