A blank canvas to landscape in Southern California.

[OverGrown]

Zone 10a | .29 acre

Acquired this property not too long ago and have spent a majority of the time updating the fundamentals as well as the interior while deconstructing the landscape here and there. Now it's time to have a little fun with the landscaping... The goal is to really push the limits with design. My style is modern eclectic.

Here is a view of the front of the house where there was once a box hedge... I had cut it down to stumps and reshaped the regrowth into circles for the time being. Everything else was lawn.. I had removed some sections and did temporary flower beds underneath the front windows but it is ready for its next phase.

I have already begun planting in the the hellstrips (area between sidewalk and street) a bunch of succulents that I've had in pots in an effort to reduce lawn and maintenance.

[trioderob]

so tell us what you are going to plant and where they go

[OverGrown]

Side yard where i had already pick axed the lawn away and planted ice plants but I will be taking those out and turning this into a car port.

The other hellstrip with recent plantings..I haven't mulched this area yet as I'm waiting for the clay soil to break down a touch more and then I will be pouring concrete forms for car access.

and another picture for perspective..

[OverGrown]

Other yard work has been cutting this hedge back 1 1/2 ft in some areas...it is finally growing back..

[Pip]

How exciting. It will be fun watching your garden change.

[OverGrown]

Spent some time removing about 15 concrete posts and a huge 5 ft one made for those 90's satellite dishes.. also cut back a mound in the corner where the original owner piled up excess dirt. Removed 5 or 6 small sized fig trees.. This was all done by hand b/c we did not have steer access at the time. Also cut back the hedge and had a cheap thrill by burning the leaves. Pictured is my dog kennel turned chicken coop where I've been moving it around the yard weekly to kill grass and bugs.. there are 34 mixed flock chickens with a few more on the way

Looking back at the house..

Edited September 21, 2014 by OverGrown

[OverGrown]

so tell us what you are going to plant and where they go

I want to plant bizzies, triangles, teddies, and other rad palms, bamboos and cycads...No Idea where they will go.. still negotiating the hardscape design.. as it stands I'm waiting to regrade the back yard even though I have temporary planted some things.. I know I want an outdoor kitchen and dining pavilion with a backdrop of a trickling stacked stone fountain which spills into a pond that flanks the pavilion as to make it appear as it is floating...

Edited September 21, 2014 by OverGrown

[OverGrown]

back corner looking southwest

looking south east...planted a painted bamboo which was outgrowing its pot.. may replant later.

looking north east...had to plant a pisang klotek banana temporarily.

[MattyB]

What a fun project! And it looks like a nice sized lot too. What area is this?

[DoomsDave]

Where is it?

So I can roar on by and check it out?

[KennyRE317]

whoa, nice large backyard. i feel your pain as i've spent 2 years clearing out my yard and just started planting within this past year

[Walter John]

Oh my what fun, palms , palms, and more palms.

[Small palm]

Looks like you have a good amount of room. Should be fun, good luck

[Jim in Los Altos]

I bet in a few years you will have a lush paradise back there and lots of unusual palms out front too. Enjoy it and take lots of progress pictures so we can enjoy it too!

[SailorBold]

Nice purchase! I like the roof design..(I have a flat roof) and very beautiful home.

That's an awesome planting area and looks like there isn't too much to remove... you are gonna have a great time!

[Cikas]

I'am sure that this will be awesome and lush garden very soon.

[OverGrown]

What a fun project! And it looks like a nice sized lot too. What area is this?

Where is it?

So I can roar on by and check it out?

North Orange County

Dave, you are welcome to come by any time.

Edited September 22, 2014 by OverGrown

[OverGrown]

Snuck in some time this week to finish breaking down the clay clumps, light grading and mulch.

Done.. for now...

Now to come up with eye catching ways to plant the front...Caryota Gigas? Flanking Bizmarkia's? Repetitive use of Dypsis Decaryi?? Houses faces Southwest so there is a breeze that blows through the house...I wonder if a couple Caryota gigas would get blown over in heavy winds..

[KennyRE317]

caryota won't get blown over and it'll be by far the fastest growing of the group, it's a great way to get some quick canopy for a decent sized area. depending on how bad your clay is grab some gypsum, it's cheap and does wonders for clay

[OverGrown]

caryota won't get blown over and it'll be by far the fastest growing of the group, it's a great way to get some quick canopy for a decent sized area. depending on how bad your clay is grab some gypsum, it's cheap and does wonders for clay

This area is all 60's track homes and mostly original owners...in most areas, I was only able to dig down 8-10 inches before hitting VERY compact hardpan... I ended up using a jackhammer with a spade to dig almost all of the holes. I blended organics and a lot of gypsum with the original clay to backfill.

[NApalm]

Great stuff. Nothing like a blank canvas. As others have said, keep us posted with progress shots like Alicehunters yard in florida. That was also a great yard makeover. If you have some time just search for it. I'd post a link but im on my phone

[OverGrown]

Did some weeding...10hrs on a boxer mini skid steer...hands are all blistered up, wrists hurts, forearm and calves aching!

front

back

removed a mound

[KennyRE317]

brings back memories, i kind of miss the work out i got from removing old grass but it was a pain to dump and so time consuming. i seriously wished i had a trunk to haul machinery instead of doing everything with a shovel

[KennyRE317]

if you can try and mix in alot of organic material/compost. alot of my palms that were in an area with 30% organic material are just growing at insane rates and they seemed to adapt real well to full sun. areas that were real shitty clay now drains real well wtih a bunch of gypsum and compost mixed in. seriously, get it delivered by the truck load. i got 4 yards of compost for the yard and 20 yards of high manure soil mix and i wish i had ordered more compost to mix in

Edited October 5, 2014 by KennyRE317

[Ben in Norcal]

That soil looks pretty good to start, though. Not like my solid compacted clay and rock...

[KennyRE317]

it's still clay and rock just not compacted. the compost goes a very long way in helping with drainage down the line

[OverGrown]

brings back memories, i kind of miss the work out i got from removing old grass but it was a pain to dump and so time consuming. i seriously wished i had a trunk to haul machinery instead of doing everything with a shovel

That soil looks pretty good to start, though. Not like my solid compacted clay and rock...

The soil here is VERY compact clay/hardpan..I had to use a jackhammer to dig many of the holes....It only looks loose because of where the tread from the steer loosened it.. I will definitely be mixing in compost and gypsum once i clear the debris

[DoomsDave]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

[OverGrown]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

that's what i did initially.. it resulted in cutting chunks out instead of breaking it up.. those chunks would dry into bricks and take more time to break down.

[KennyRE317]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

when i prepped my soil wetting it was actually the worse thing i did and quickly stopped after the first time. the drainage was so bad that the top would stay wet until everything evaporated, which endedup making the surface too slick to do anything and the gypsum would end up clumping instead of being loose powder.

the best way i found to do it was thick layer of compost or soil mix ontop of the native clay soak it completely for 2 days and then let dry for 24 hours, it made the soil pretty easy to get the shovel all the way down and then pry up and "shake" mix it with the shovel

[DoomsDave]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

that's what i did initially.. it resulted in cutting chunks out instead of breaking it up.. those chunks would dry into bricks and take more time to break down.

At least you can dig it. Sometimes you can't even when wet.

Dig a pit bury all kinds of organics in it, and keep wet.

[DoomsDave]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

when i prepped my soil wetting it was actually the worse thing i did and quickly stopped after the first time. the drainage was so bad that the top would stay wet until everything evaporated, which endedup making the surface too slick to do anything and the gypsum would end up clumping instead of being loose powder.

the best way i found to do it was thick layer of compost or soil mix ontop of the native clay soak it completely for 2 days and then let dry for 24 hours, it made the soil pretty easy to get the shovel all the way down and then pry up and "shake" mix it with the shovel

yike

never experienced that horrah

[KennyRE317]

this is from my thread from last year around this time

4" of compost ontop of the clay

mixed compost with native clay after 2 days of constant soaking

gypsum on first half

raked and leveled after mixing all the gypsum

made sure everything was graded and dumped the leftover clay bricks

[KennyRE317]

Try wetting heavy first before you dig . . .

Bet that will at least obviate the need for a jack hammer . . .

(Sprinkle for a couple of hours.)

when i prepped my soil wetting it was actually the worse thing i did and quickly stopped after the first time. the drainage was so bad that the top would stay wet until everything evaporated, which endedup making the surface too slick to do anything and the gypsum would end up clumping instead of being loose powder.

the best way i found to do it was thick layer of compost or soil mix ontop of the native clay soak it completely for 2 days and then let dry for 24 hours, it made the soil pretty easy to get the shovel all the way down and then pry up and "shake" mix it with the shovel

yike

never experienced that horrah

yea, i don't know what it is with this area but the soil is absolutely horrible to work with. i mentioned this in another post a few weeks back but i cleared out an area of my front lawn and was dug a 5gal hole to plant another palm but decided to flood the hole first to check drainage (i do this before i plant anything because the soil is real bad) after 24 hours it drained about an inch to 1.5" so i ended up mixing 8cu ft of manure mix from the big box store into a small area and reworked more gypsum into it then piled on some mulch. hopefully by early spring the soil will be more than workable

[KennyRE317]

i ended up cheating though and built raised beds through this area. drainage in the planters are amazing since those raised planters go about 2-3' deep below original ground level. there's 20 cubic yards in these beds

[KennyRE317]

another quick note since you've completely gutted the old landscape. put in underground PVC and "T" them up as if you're going to do sprinklers on multiple zones. it'll be much easier in the future when you want to run drip in your planting beds

[DoomsDave]

Kenny

dang when you coming to visit?

[KennyRE317]

Kenny

dang when you coming to visit?

seriously i need to, i'll send over a message soon and see if you have any saturdays available, i'll pick one when my parents take my son so i have some time to explore your jungle of a yard.

[grant b.]

whoa Kenny! when I first read above that you brought in 24 yards of mix for your backyard, I couldn't believe where you would fit it all. after reading more and scrolling down, I saw that you needed that much to fill in your raised beds. you hadn't built those yet when I came to visit you. it looks real nice

ive been doing the complete makeover thing in my new yard as well. I got a skidsteer to remove the lawns, but the rest is going to be manual labor. I can totally relate to the workout you get from removing grass and working the shovel for hours on end.

I don't know where you got your compost or manure, but I got hooked up with a equestrian center to get free loads of manure compost. its pretty good stuff mixed with wood shavings and they load me with a tractor. I can pack about 3 yards in the bed of my truck and ive already dumped about 9 yards so far. its just slow going because I have to move it from my driveway to the backyard one wheelbarrow (6 cubic ft) at a time.

[KennyRE317]

whoa Kenny! when I first read above that you brought in 24 yards of mix for your backyard, I couldn't believe where you would fit it all. after reading more and scrolling down, I saw that you needed that much to fill in your raised beds. you hadn't built those yet when I came to visit you. it looks real nice

ive been doing the complete makeover thing in my new yard as well. I got a skidsteer to remove the lawns, but the rest is going to be manual labor. I can totally relate to the workout you get from removing grass and working the shovel for hours on end.

I don't know where you got your compost or manure, but I got hooked up with a equestrian center to get free loads of manure compost. its pretty good stuff mixed with wood shavings and they load me with a tractor. I can pack about 3 yards in the bed of my truck and ive already dumped about 9 yards so far. its just slow going because I have to move it from my driveway to the backyard one wheelbarrow (6 cubic ft) at a time.

doing those raised beds was probably the best thing i could have done, if i had known how i wanted my planting beds beforehand i would have done it throughout the entire property, but i'm very indecisive with layout. there's a place in whittier that came highly recommended by alot of members and even nurserymen where they'll custom mix the components you want. compared to how much i've spent on bagged soil the cost of the mix + delivery was a steal. it took an entire weekend of doing nothing but wheeling back dirt from the driveway to the planters but it was all worth it for great drainage and high organic medium

this is the 20 yards of dirt that filled those planters, just about a year ago

Edited October 6, 2014 by KennyRE317