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What should I do with this corner of my front yard?

 
Timothy Norton
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In a quest to reduce lawn space, I have been chipping away at various locations on my property, turning them into growing spaces. After some initial hesitation, my better half is onboard at looking towards the front of the property for new project areas. She has, however, given me a challenge that has me stumped. What should I do with this spot?





At the front of my property, I have a bit of lawn between my driveway and my sidewalk. It receives full morning sun and then is semi-shaded towards the afternoon as the sun heads towards the rear of my property. The 'soil' is leaning towards sandy/gravelly and has had grass growing on it for fifty plus years. As you can see in the photos, grass doesn't grow very well there. Above this spot, ten to twelve foot up are power lines limiting the height of what I can grow there.

What should I consider? My first thought is a small raised bed where I can improve the soil in a contained area. Another consideration would be some form of shorter bush with less aggressive roots?

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Joao Winckler
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That mix of morning sun and afternoon shade is actually ideal for currants or gooseberries, they tend to sulk in full sun anyway. Alpine strawberries are another one worth considering, spreads nicely and handles foot traffic near paths better than most things.

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Sam Potter
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Id plant herbs there personally if your going for that small spot. Alot of them like the conditions you are talking about and can be very decretive for a front garden. But Id love to hold all that soil there with a retaining wall made of rocks to match the one against the house all the way along the driveway and side walk. looks like you could taper it off towards the entry walkway. Completely remove the grass in the L shaped section there in favor of a stepped garden bed. The grass there looks unhealthy and unloved anyways!

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Anne Miller
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I am with Joao, I'd go with strawberries.

If that were my spot I would want things that are low growing and don't get tall.  That is why I feel strawberries would be perfect.

For some fall color, Gazania would be nice.

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I am concerned that the pattern of dry grass suggests that either rocks and debris got dumped there at some point, or that the soil is more compacted than elsewhere. A bit of forking where you just push the fork in and lever it back and forth a bit (like broad forking does - not turning the soil) would answer both of those possibilities.

I have several different herbs growing in Allen blocks at the edge of the driveway near our house. Sage, chives, oregano, marjoram, as perennials and parsley self seeds with minimal help. This is great for picking some sprigs to add to things. They are also all fairly low growing so as not to interfere with sight lines (please be careful of that with a side walk and potentially small children, who don't stick up so high and tend towards unexpected actions.) The already suggested strawberries also fit the bill, so long as you don't object to sharing them.

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Timothy Norton
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A little more information...

This spot consistently ends up as dead lawn by the end of summer. I do agree that the existing dirt is probably compacted or filled with stones. Part of the project will be digging down a little bit and seeing what there is. There are no buried utilities in this area which simplifies that part of the project. There is quite a bit of mass existing there so the lawn might be releveled.

My initial thoughts were a triangle shaped raised bed to contain some good soil and keep it 'clean' looking but I'm not settled on that. I'm going to do a deeper dive into gooseberry growing and see if that might be a good addition to the homestead. I don't have much in the realm of berry bushes thriving so it is tempting.

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R Scott
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My first impression is to make rock wall raised beds to match the existing, but lower.  But….

Any concern about driving into them by missing the driveway?

Any hoa/town rules about clearance from the sidewalk?

Is there a walking path you want to keep?

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Nancy Reading
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I like the idea of herbs...
On the front it is nice to have decorative plants and I'm not sure gooseberries fit the bill. They also can be a bit spiny. What's your soil pH? I'm finding blueberries quite pretty. They have nice autumn colour as well as the berries and flowers. If you made a small rasied bed you could maybe put in more acid soil to suit them. It would be more work to get a nice soil for them though. They could be underplanted with strawberries perhaps.

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Carla Burke
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I love the look of a raised rock garden or a pyramid-shaped herb spiral, with patches of soil for herbs, like creeping thyme spilling over the sides, basil growing bushy, oregano... maybe with a berry bush or two in the backdrop...

The stronger aromatic herbs also come with the benefit of driving away pests, like mosquitoes.

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Chance Lunceford
Posts: 176
Location: Payson, Utah, US of A - Zone6B/High Desert/4500' /14" Rainfall
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Here's a proposal:

Central Feature: Self-fertile plum, preferably with purple foliage, kept pruned to a height of 5-8'. Plums require less sun than most tree fruit for production. Methley, maybe.

Supporting Shrubs:

- Honeyberries actually prefer the sun schedule you've outlined. Get at least two varieties.
- Pop in a couple well behaved ribes varieties (currants and gooseberries)
- bush honeysuckle for beauty and pollinator/bird support
- oak leaf hydrangea for pollinator support

Herbaceous / Ground Cover
- Helleborus is beautiful and many bloom during winter
- hostas in the shadier spots
- rhubarb
- Perennial kale will thrive in that spot if you can get it established
- strawberries will produce a crop without getting summer scorched
- some sort of well-behaved clover for nitrogen and pollinator support
- mountain mint for pollinator support
- sea plantain for perennial edible greens
- Corsican mint
- creeping thyme
- chives

Possible Vine:

- a well behaved clematis would thrive
 
Chance Lunceford
Posts: 176
Location: Payson, Utah, US of A - Zone6B/High Desert/4500' /14" Rainfall
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Additionally, I'd consider adding some larger boulder features in an attractive manner. This can help create some microclimates and prevent your soil from getting patched, in addition to the aesthetically pleasing nature of some well placed rocks.
 
William Bronson
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I like to plant berries by the street to feed passers by and I love raised beds.
A raised bed with concrete block walls, about 2 courses high, capped with pavers, would nice to sit on while you worked the bed.
Jostaberries are a nice substitute for gooseberries.
They produce well for me in our hot humid summers and they don't have thorns.
We get plenty of rain and min our planted in a sun irrigated planter, but I think they would do fine with less rain, as long as the soil has water holding capacity.
They propagate very easily, just stick your prunings in some potting soil.
I use the space under the bush for pots with cuttings, which suppresses weeds,
Watering the cuttings and the mother bush at the same time is very efficient.

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Douglas Alpenstock
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That's where you place the giant inflatable Godzilla statue. When the neighbours complain, you can agree to take it down. And then you can plant anything you please and they will all agree it's an improvement.
 
May Lotito
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Does the spot get ice melt in winter? Or do you put a snow pile there? Just wondering if the corner gets soggy due to the weather.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
Stephen Sully
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Remember that that’s a great spot for 2 legged squirrels to help themselves so don’t plant anything that you don’t mind sharing.
 
Riona Abhainn
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Everything I've tried to plant directly into my lawn-for-too-long dirt doesn't really grow, it either does nothing initially and then  slowly becomes less healthy or it grows very tiny and never big enough to do what its supposed to do.  Except for mint, which can actually do okay, I grew it in-ground last year and it flowered and did its thing.  So maybe since the dirt there is sucky mint would be a good option, and neighbours can pull a sprig whenever but you'll still have plenty.

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