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Landscaping Design on a Sloping Bank

Bob checks out the sloping bank that comes from the Western red cedar deck to the yard. Salvaged granite curbs serve as steps set into the bank, leading to the lawn. Foster explains that the gardens will be green, with junipers and yews for low maintenance, varying height, and deep green coverage. She also shows Bob the batch composter for making rich mulch or "black gold" for the plants and gardens. The gardens are dressed with two inches of pine mulch to keep the weeds down and the moisture in the soil. She closes with a self-watering window box that will complete the low-maintenance gardens and flowering boxes on the new deck.

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Planting Bulbs and Overseeding the Lawn Now Playing

Planting Bulbs and Overseeding the Lawn

Selecting Exterior Paint for the Victorian's Exterior Now Playing

Selecting Exterior Paint for the Victorian's Exterior

Landscaping Design on a Sloping Bank Now Playing

Landscaping Design on a Sloping Bank

Preparing to Paint the Victorian's Exterior Now Playing

Preparing to Paint the Victorian's Exterior

Clip Transcript For:

Landscaping Design on a Sloping Bank

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" So Ruth before we talk about your -- Plant material choices here on this slope. We had a construction problem really in that we needed to transition from our beautiful red cedar deck down to this garden area. Where you're creating the flower borders and we found out that for about ten bucks a Linear foot weakened by. Salvaged. Granite curb stones. And that's what you see right here making a retainer as well as a set of steps. Now what are some of the plants that you've chosen for us here."

" Well -- chosen low care plants for full sun these are juniper. And they will spread and cover the bank because nobody who sits up there ever looks here -- look at the flower and then these over here these are sixty news and it will grow tall. And they can be sheared and nobody. Will walk off the edge of the deck so that's not right. Upright. Column -- kind of plant yes and evergreen and very hardy very good."

" Marvelous so this will basically all be evergreen dark green and you can always accent it like you have here yes with something like a perennial aura chrysanthemum. And what's this."

" Well this is a compost or Bob everybody should compost is throwing in your vegetable kitchen scraps your lawn mowing your leaves all chopped up it's a batch compost your. To throw wood and and you. Turned around a few times put in little water is putting hot grass clippings and all that press clippings leaves see you make one big batch with this action today. And then you roll -- every few days heroic fight taken off and you kick it heroic fiber tens of kids to play with -- right yeah. -- A couple of inches two inches or so on top to keep the moisture and to keep the weeds down."

" And to protect your plant roots and it looks much better tell it does look much better and you know we're going -- wonder we want everything to look nice and -- in his."

" What we're released re going to do this is a wonderful thing it's a self watering window box you put the watering hole there's a reservoir down at the bottom that's this big. And the plants stay nice for a weaker ten days fabulous lots of great ideas thanks Ruth. Thank you Bob so beautiful garden always a pleasure to be."

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Creating a Low-Maintenance Front Yard

In the last couple of weeks, the landscape on the front of the yard has been replaced. It used to be somewhat scruffy and sloped right to the sidewalk. A beautiful recycled stone curb has been installed along the front of the house and acts as a retaining wall. Bob talks with Ruth Foster, a landscape designer, and Nick Christy of Atlantic View Landscape Construction. A low-maintenance garden was put in place because this a busy household with two young children. The lawn was taken out because mowing lawns requires a lot of time. Pachysandra is being installed as ground cover because it does not require a lot of care. Pachysandra takes a year or two to develop but once it does, the ground will be completely covered. The pachysandra grows by sending out roots and sending up little plantlets. The plant requires no fertilization or watering. The front yard was filled in with eighteen inches of loam to reduce the slope to the curb and enrich the plant bed. A red Japanese maple that can grow to around 30 feet in height is at the center of the new yard. This tree will also need limbing in the future. Holly and rhododendron were also added to the front yard for low-maintenance bloom ing bushes. Daffodils and blue muscari were also put in, providing a blue and yellow accent in the spring.

Controlled Water Use for Lawns and Gardens

Greg Peterson from Lawn Logic explains how their soil moisture monitoring and control system overrides an irrigation timer and prevents unnecessary watering when there is enough moisture present in the soil. The eight zones around the house are set for moisture requirements depending on plant and soil needs. The control center prevents overwatering or wasted water in a given zone by measuring the actual moisture present and sending a message to the irrigation system. Lawn Logic works with all types of irrigation systems and soils.

How to Install and Use a Rain Barrel

A rain barrel is a water-efficient way of supplying your garden with a renewable source of water.