Anyone want to play amateur landscape architect?

If you read any of my past posts about my site, you'll see that we have a "seasonal pond" (really just an enormous puddle) by the side of the road that is fed mainly by our sump pumps under the house and winter rain. Well, the road needs to be regraded and the neighbors generously pitched in with labor and equipment to get the water draining into the wetlands across the street so future runoff won't erode the road.

The result is that now I have an immense blank slate to play with that I couldn't do anything with previously. It's SO exciting!

I have a ton of ideas but haven't settled on anything.

What would you do if you suddenly had an extra 2,000 sf of south-facing gently sloping garden to play with?

Feel free to share practical ideas pertaining to my site (Seattle zone 8 ) if you want or just share your own garden fantasies. 😁

I would like to add that I plan on doing stuff to catch and hold onto the rainwater in this spot.

Ask Google earth,
Make a screen shot of your land,
draw a roster on the picture.

Then return to google earth and move your cursor over the area.
In the below right corner it shows the actual elevation of the land.

Sign point by point into your screenshot and here you go.
The first step for your landscaping, a nice topographic map...

What is your vision?  An edible garden or something for the butterflies and other pollinators. Or maybe a mini food forest?

I am not familiar with plants that like to catch and hold onto the rainwater in this spot.

To me, the spots says scarlet runner beans, rosemary and turks cap though I don't think those will catch and hold rainwater.

Here are a couple of threads that might offer plant suggestions:

https://permies.com/t/156129/Food-forest-advice-wet-climate

https://permies.com/t/156506/wetlands/Flooding

If you already have your gardening space covered, I'd create a recreational spot, with a gazebo (be sure it doesn't eat you), surrounded by a chaotic wilderness, in orderly places. That is, select a few shapes in the ground where growth is allowed, then plant wildly, just anything that look lush and let Nature do her thing. And make sure to have enough tea to enjoy the views.

So this is 18feet wide with a road bordering it and is on a curve?
Who all uses this road? Who might potentially use the road in the future?
I ask because it can be important to maintain sight lines. If people walk along the edge of the road, but need to be able to get off the road in case of an unruly driver, now is the time to plan for that. Since you'll want to maintain the area, and presumably plant some things that may need harvesting, having a path that clearly may be used by people walking along the road , but winding through the new garden, would be a considerate thing that might spread the ideas of permaculture. Maybe now everyone drives... maybe in the future the joy of walking places will return?

Also, you mention south facing, but what will be north of this area and thus, what sort of height restrictions are you thinking of?

Jay Angler wrote:So this is 18feet wide with a road bordering it and is on a curve?
Who all uses this road? Who might potentially use the road in the future?
I ask because it can be important to maintain sight lines. If people walk along the edge of the road, but need to be able to get off the road in case of an unruly driver, now is the time to plan for that. Since you'll want to maintain the area, and presumably plant some things that may need harvesting, having a path that clearly may be used by people walking along the road , but winding through the new garden, would be a considerate thing that might spread the ideas of permaculture. Maybe now everyone drives... maybe in the future the joy of walking places will return?

Also, you mention south facing, but what will be north of this area and thus, what sort of height restrictions are you thinking of?

Good questions... It is the end of a private gravel road.  Around the corner is a giant gravel circle.  Mine and two other houses are off the circle.  That is a very good point about sight lines.  Nobody who lives here ever drives fast than about 5 mph around that corner but I should keep that clear for any careless people who are visiting.

North of it is my "in progress" food forest.  Lots of fruit trees, grape vines, and berry bushes along the fence line.  So I'm not going to be putting any super tall trees in this part.  

I'm thinking more berry bushes and wildflowers and a few more small sized trees/shrubs.  I definitely need a walking path through it for harvesting and because of all the neighborhood kids who come over to play.  Everyone walks on the gravel road but the kids are all taught to get off the road when they hear a car coming so they need to be able to step off into that area.

See Hes wrote:Ask Google earth,
Make a screen shot of your land,
draw a roster on the picture.

Then return to google earth and move your cursor over the area.
In the below right corner it shows the actual elevation of the land.

Sign point by point into your screenshot and here you go.
The first step for your landscaping, a nice topographic map...

Oh thank you!  That is a pretty cool tool to use.

Hey Jenny, thanks for sharing your opportunity with us! A bit of new soil near the house is always fun...

My first thought is hugelkultur... do you have any? How do they perform for you?

Since it's south facining, My dream response would be a bunch of hugelkultur running perpindicular to the road, in my mind they look like cilia or capillaries in plan. That way, there' d be lots of tiny hugel sunscoops opening towards the road (easy access) and making lots of little microclimate.

Would love to see what you decide to do with your new bit of canvas!

Ash Jackson wrote:
My first thought is hugelkultur... do you have any? How do they perform for you?

Since it's south facining, My dream response would be a bunch of hugelkultur running perpindicular to the road, in my mind they look like cilia or capillaries in plan. That way, there' d be lots of tiny hugel sunscoops opening towards the road (easy access) and making lots of little microclimate.

We have some hugelkultur mounds in the backyard and they work really well. It hadn't occurred to me to do some tiny ones in the front along the road. I think they would perform really well also.