I did a small landscape project this past weekend. Now I'm looking to refine it, maybe add a urn as a focal point or something similar. I appreciate any tips

Here are a few ideas, more than likely pedestal urn will be part of the design but I'm open to other suggestions

I sure would be taking out more grass and designing a full bed not just a few plants.
You are going to have so much fun mowing that area.

karmahappytoes said: I sure would be taking out more grass and designing a full bed not just a few plants.
You are going to have so much fun mowing that area.

That'll be too much work :D I'll leave enough gap to be able to mow around them

Ceriano:

Thought you would like to see what our front yard looks like, not work just a 'passion' and this time of year not much out there. Start small in this area and just keep working at it. Sorry the photo isn't great, taken from our video camera, a bit
to cool to be out. We started with all grass and after 33 years it's established nicely.



On yours I would create a full bed in this area to surround all items.

karmahappytoes said: Ceriano:

Thought you would like to see what our front yard looks like, not work just a 'passion' and this time of year not much out there. Start small in this area and just keep working at it. Sorry the photo isn't great, taken from our video camera, a bit
to cool to be out. We started with all grass and after 33 years it's established nicely.



On yours I would create a full bed in this area to surround all items.

That looks great. Something like that I'd probably have to hire a contractor to do.
Our HOA is a pain to deal with, they wouldn't let me do a piece at a time.

Ceriano:

I did this all by myself! A while back we had a huge evergreen fall across the front
yard, they took 8 cords of wood away and I had a landscaper tell me it would take a year to get it back to normal. The landscaper about die when he came back in less than a month and it was back to normal. Type karma 'Happy Toes' Garden in google and you can see the rest of the yard.

I wouldn't live in a house that has a HOA if you gave me
the house for free. Just do a half circle in this area first. Then slowly do other areas and you should be fine. Or run for head of the HOA??

karmahappytoes said: Ceriano:

I did this all by myself! A while back we had a huge evergreen fall across the front
yard, they took 8 cords of wood away and I had a landscaper tell me it would take a year to get it back to normal. The landscaper about die when he came back in less than a month and it was back to normal. Type karma 'Happy Toes' Garden in google and you can see the rest of the yard.

I wouldn't live in a house that has a HOA if you gave me
the house for free. Just do a half circle in this area first. Then slowly do other areas and you should be fine. Or run for head of the HOA??

I'll never buy a house with HOA either. They've made the whole process miserable!

I concur with the advice to remove the grass and turn it into a single large bed.

Both a large curve at the front or a rectangle joined to the hedge in the back are an option, seeing the formal planting scheme.

If you'd like an urn, placing it in the middle would be the most obvious choice. Keeping the surrounding planting low (small perennials or groundcover) and fairly monotonous (not too many species, cultivars, colors) would keep it visually pleasing; it won't look like it's swamping the trees and shrubs. As they grow higher you can revise this choice since they'll be able to hold their own visually.

A simple bench is also an option.

Design (however bad and tasteless ) in and of itself is subjective. It's your garden. You do you and if it doesn't do it for you, try again. That's the fun thing about gardening after all.

Arico said: I concur with the advice to remove the grass and turn it into a single large bed.

Both a large curve at the front or a rectangle joined to the hedge in the back are an option, seeing the formal planting scheme.

If you'd like an urn, placing it in the middle would be the most obvious choice. Keeping the surrounding planting low (small perennials or groundcover) and fairly monotonous (not too many species, cultivars, colors) would keep it visually pleasing; it won't look like it's swamping the trees and shrubs. As they grow higher you can revise this choice since they'll be able to hold their own visually.

A simple bench is also an option.

Design (however bad and tasteless ) in and of itself is subjective. It's your garden. You do you and if it doesn't do it for you, try again. That's the fun thing about gardening after all.

Thanks, I'm a big fan of French formal gardens. I like the idea of adding a bench, something like this would be cool.

Now the above photo is more than work to keep that all looking nice!

karmahappytoes said: Now the above photo is more than work to keep that all looking nice!

That's part of the fun!

Arico said: I concur with the advice to remove the grass and turn it into a single large bed.

Both a large curve at the front or a rectangle joined to the hedge in the back are an option, seeing the formal planting scheme.

If you'd like an urn, placing it in the middle would be the most obvious choice. Keeping the surrounding planting low (small perennials or groundcover) and fairly monotonous (not too many species, cultivars, colors) would keep it visually pleasing; it won't look like it's swamping the trees and shrubs. As they grow higher you can revise this choice since they'll be able to hold their own visually.

A simple bench is also an option.

Design (however bad and tasteless ) in and of itself is subjective. It's your garden. You do you and if it doesn't do it for you, try again. That's the fun thing about gardening after all.

What are some good options for groundcover? Phlox? I must admit I know zero about perennials!
Can also add a low hedge to define a border around the urn or it wouldn't work in that space?

Inspiring. Good bones to work with.

People may have been right in their suggestions of joining up the plants into one or 2 bigger beds. You may also need a gravel path to get to your urn so you do not wear down the grass.
I would probably choose a sundial over an urn, but that is just me.
Here are a couple examples stolen from the internet. Note the straight formal lines in one, versus the swirly lines in the other:





I think you are off to a great start. Come back an post more pics once you get it together, I would love to see the final product.

Edited to add: your trees in the back line do not appear to be healthy. You may wish to investigate. It would ruin your formal garden to have a line of dead trees.

plasko20 said: People may have been right in their suggestions of joining up the plants into one or 2 bigger beds. You may also need a gravel path to get to your urn so you do not wear down the grass.
I would probably choose a sundial over an urn, but that is just me.
Here are a couple examples stolen from the internet. Note the straight formal lines in one, versus the swirly lines in the other:





I think you are off to a great start. Come back an post more pics once you get it together, I would love to see the final product.

Edited to add: your trees in the back line do not appear to be healthy. You may wish to investigate. It would ruin your formal garden to have a line of dead trees.

Wow these are great designs! thanks for the tip! I picked up a few cherry trees for the front yard and this autumn cherry for the back. Initially I was planning to plant this in the right side to cast shade on the maples and have a redbud on the left which gets afternoon shade. I like the contrast between white flowers and ever green in the background. Now I'm having second thoughts. I feel it won't look symmetric. Maybe I should do cherries on both sides? Or skip it all together.
Can I keep cherries trees pruned to make them look more formal? I only have about 24ft to the property line on the left side so it has to be kept upright and not too wide.
The trees in the back are green giants. The color is lighter green compared to Leyland Cypress. Is the color that seems off? I did not plant those tree myself but they've been planted too close to each other. The thought process was if they planted too close they won't grow as tall. (And probably don't live as long!)

There is no rule that you absolutely have to be symmetrical.
It is your yard. You are the artist and it is your canvas. Plus things in pairs never grow at the same rate anyhow so you would end up with one bigger than the other which would annoy you.
I like cherry trees (and Japanese maples) as I love the Japanese garden look, myself.
They can definitely be pruned into shape, depending on which you have (there are so many) they will be fine. Not sure if you would call it formal, but there is one I like called Amanogawa (a.k.a flagpole). It is narrow and upright. Good for tight spaces, but the blooms are more white than pink. But I do like visiting the Kwanzan cherry trees in the park (too big for my yard) as they have doubled-blooms so they really pop. Autumn cherry blooms twice a year (so more bang for your buck), once in spring then again in fall. However, also too big for me.
I like your planning and thinking.
One practical thing to bear in mind is that some types of trees will seek out your water main or sewage line and try and invade roots into it. I forget which types are nuisance trees, but some can be. Not sure if that patch of your yard covers any important pipes.

plasko20 said: There is no rule that you absolutely have to be symmetrical.
It is your yard. You are the artist and it is your canvas. Plus things in pairs never grow at the same rate anyhow so you would end up with one bigger than the other which would annoy you.
I like cherry trees (and Japanese maples) as I love the Japanese garden look, myself.
They can definitely be pruned into shape, depending on which you have (there are so many) they will be fine. Not sure if you would call it formal, but there is one I like called Amanogawa (a.k.a flagpole). It is narrow and upright. Good for tight spaces, but the blooms are more white than pink. But I do like visiting the Kwanzan cherry trees in the park (too big for my yard) as they have doubled-blooms so they really pop. Autumn cherry blooms twice a year (so more bang for your buck), once in spring then again in fall. However, also too big for me.
I like your planning and thinking.
One practical thing to bear in mind is that some types of trees will seek out your water main or sewage line and try and invade roots into it. I forget which types are nuisance trees, but some can be. Not sure if that patch of your yard covers any important pipes.

I've never seen an Amanogawa before, very cool tree indeed. Would fit perfect of the left side. Thanks for the tip.
No pipes in the backyard except lawn irrigation but those are not in the way and not very expensive to replace.
There's a huge backlog on garden stone work. I reached out to couple of companies for urn and pedestal, they accept orders for 2023!

plasko20 said: There is no rule that you absolutely have to be symmetrical.
It is your yard. You are the artist and it is your canvas. Plus things in pairs never grow at the same rate anyhow so you would end up with one bigger than the other which would annoy you.
I like cherry trees (and Japanese maples) as I love the Japanese garden look, myself.
They can definitely be pruned into shape, depending on which you have (there are so many) they will be fine. Not sure if you would call it formal, but there is one I like called Amanogawa (a.k.a flagpole). It is narrow and upright. Good for tight spaces, but the blooms are more white than pink. But I do like visiting the Kwanzan cherry trees in the park (too big for my yard) as they have doubled-blooms so they really pop. Autumn cherry blooms twice a year (so more bang for your buck), once in spring then again in fall. However, also too big for me.
I like your planning and thinking.
One practical thing to bear in mind is that some types of trees will seek out your water main or sewage line and try and invade roots into it. I forget which types are nuisance trees, but some can be. Not sure if that patch of your yard covers any important pipes.

I found a guy that's willing to cut a mulch bed for $350 bucks. So that's an option. I thought it'd cost a lot more.
Now I need to decide on the shape and where the hedges would go. Curved cuts don't look very formal.

ceriano said: Curved cuts don't look very formal.

Depends on how you define that.