Laureen has worked with this couple over a few years to remake their very large front yard from a span of lawn into a private space for entertaining, play and growing food. The yard has evolved as their family has evolved.

The Objectives:

This busy couple owned a small restaurant empire when Laureen first started working with them. They have since sold that and are focused on spending time with their young daughter. They wanted a space to park their Airstream trailer and a space for sitting outside and entertaining.

They used organic ingredients in their award-winning food and wanted to grow food in their yard. The wife was learning herbalism and also wanted to grow herbs and medicinal plants.

Originally they wanted a way to keep their pug dog in the front yard and later our solution worked to keep their daughter in too.

The yard has a lot of street frontage and faces a hill across the street. They wanted privacy – to make the point clear – the wife said “I want to garden naked in my front yard.” She probably never has and we continue to joke about that.

Recently, the couple asked Laureen to redesign part of the yard again to level the lawn area to create play space and incorporate a sandbox.

The Solutions:

For parking of the Airstream trailer, we extended the driveway and built a concrete retaining wall, steps with inset lighting, and a new walkway along the front of the house.

For privacy we put in a Red Osier Dogwood hedge with Hansa Rose bushes near the front gate for colour and fragrance. At the street light pole, we put in Dwarf Birches as they are not as wide as the dogwoods. Near the concrete wall we put in some wild roses in a spot where they would not be able to spread too much. At the bottom of the yard we put in some sea buckthorn for height and their berries.

We custom-designed and built cedar gates for the two outside entrances to the front yard. These were stained with C2Guard, a non-toxic penetrating preservative that does not need to be sanded off and restained over time. It just needs to be touched up every five years or so.

To keep the dog, and later the daughter, in the yard, we built a two foot high fence of green stucco wire just inside the hedge and circling the perimeter of most of the yard. A wire gate was incorporated at the entrance to the back yard. This fence is pretty much invisible and works!

For food, we built 4 raised cedar beds, one with a trellis for growing hops (the tea is great for relaxing). Between the beds we planted wild strawberries as an edible groundcover. We also built a large area in the centre of the yard to be the wife’s wild garden where she could plant medicinal plants. We planted honey berries, black and red currants, saskatoons, raspberries, rhubarb, sour cherry bushes and lots of wild strawberries as groundcover.

We built a large raised flagstone patio and dug a gas line under it so the family could have a gas heater and also a gas firebowl on the patio. Pussytoes were planted in the cracks between the
stones to add life to the patio.

Originally for the dog (who has now passed away), we put in Freedom Fescue sod to create a small lawn. This lawn grows more slowly and does not need as much water as traditional lawns. Recently Laureen redesigned to incorporate a brick retaining wall so that the lawn area can be levelled. This will make it easier to put a small portable swimming pool on the lawn and to play on the lawn. She also designed a rhomboid shaped sandbox on the far side of the lawn for their daughter. To keep this area shaded, she designed in tall Tickle Me Pink Willow bushes. This was also an opportunity to add more native medicinal plants such as River Beauty Fireweed.

The retaining wall will be about two feet high, so to prevent falling off it, Laureen designed in more honey berry and dwarf birch bushes on the downside of the wall and Dwarf Bunny grasses along the edge of the lawn before the wall.

Two one cubic meter water totes will also be added to collect and store rainwater. These will be screened with wooden removable walls to match the wooden gates in the yard.

Laureen designed beautiful low-maintenance evergreen bushes, grasses and perennial flowers in many spots around the yard so there is colour year-round.

While the wildness of this yard may not be to everyone’s tastes, this is what the wife wanted. She is happy that her daughter can now graze on wild strawberries and the foot high dandelions are a prized food and herb source. The family enjoys spending a lot of time in their front yard.