Walls and a planted trellis fence create a sense of privacy

We recently had the privilege to appear in Spaces magazine for a project that we had done here in Minneapolis. This particular landscape/garden features a front yard patio, water feature, parking area, and lots of plantings with zero lawn.

The front patio is where the design began for the clients to enjoy gathering on and watching the sunset , but to be in the front yard meant having to listen to road noise and be on display for the neighbors. To help diffuse that we added some small tiered walls, giving the patio a slightly enclosed feeling.  You can still see in but your are tucked in by 18″ of wall and another 12-18″ of plants.  The wall sets up some nice planting zones to incorporate different types of plantings where the client tucks in a few herbs at the patios edge, but then has a row of blueberry for shrubs.

A waterfeature that provides relaxation  can been seen from inside the house as well and the can watch birds come and get a drink.  The benefit of the water near a noisy road is the white noise of the waterfall to help combat the passing cars.  A big win for an urban space!

As for the plantings, all of the front yard and boulevard is covered – there isn’t any traditional lawn left! ( the article mis quoted that there is little lawn, when in fact there is no turf but instead thyme).  Lawns are a huge allergen issue so that was the easier part to exclude, but finding the right plants to bring in took more consideration. All the plantings were chosen for their rating of pollen output to minimize the allergen content of the yard, of course the neighboring trees and lawns are still out there, but at least we created a better zone in this space and did it with some fun plants that even fruit!

  • Chokeberry
  • Raspberry
  • Blueberry
  • Dwf Spruce
  • Forsythia
  • Apple Tree
  • Strawberry

for perennials:

  • Salvia
  • Sedum
  • Allium
  • Geranium
  • Stachy’s
  • Thyme
  • Platycodon

Lastly there was a issue with the driveway interacting with the front yard, as the house is situated with the alley the drive way looks like it is in the front of the house, well because it is.  But how do we not stare at the car there? We screened this off with custom fence that is also a trellis for the Kiwi vine and other annual vines like beans and now we do not see the car parked on driveway from the patio or from the sidewalk.

Here is a link to see the full article:

sustainable solutions – spaces 2016

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