My Front Yard Gets The Walkway It Deserves | Dirty Business (Garden Makeover)

he's strong he's wacky he's james the landscape designer join him as he pours his heart into transforming michael's greery front yard into a beautiful destination for pedestrians and cars alike [Music] got a call from michael last week it's a well-established neighborhood a lot of beautiful gardens around so i uh i got a lot of pressure on me just want to make sure i make them look good [Music] uh this is weird uh this is embarrassing oh great meeting great start off to a great start here [Music] this must be the door [Music] james dale michael hello pleasure to meet you well we're off to a great start here i uh i was knocking on your front door i thought that used to be the front door it did about uh 50 years ago as i'm finding out right now michael one of the first issues i'm gonna tackle i think right away is uh your identity crisis with the front entrance of this home you can't tell that the side entrance is the main entrance so we really have to drum it up and create a visual interest from the street in the driveway it's a little narrow it is oh sorry i think we should probably widen that in essence michael what are we looking for in the front yard number one we need to have parking we retain some parking the front driveway leads into this great big open parking lot in front of this beautiful old majestic home but it's just this this newer interlock which somebody just haphazardly threw down number two these little shrubs at the front have got to go it's in policy oncoming traffic so we need to have a little bit of a better sight line thirdly we need to have an attractive entrance to the house currently it's not in the summer um you can't see the front of the house it's a nice old house and we'd like it to be more visible these two trees probably have to go clearing the trees will open this beautiful home to the street it's a touchy subject but it's something i want to address right away so it is touching yeah i think i'll get over the the loss but it would be good to replace them with something uh absolutely um more appropriate for the house in the neighborhood it's a very old house it's had numerous renovations and add-ons with all the work michael's done to the inside of the house i've got one very important question is there a budget left for landscaping maybe 50-60 bucks okay yeah i think i've met my match you know i'm i'm usually the guy who jokes around a lot i'm getting nervous in front of him i actually like him so much that i feel like i've known him for a long time i think we're going to get along really well so just call me a mushroom michael thank you back at dirty business headquarters we're brainstorming how to best serve michael's needs at the same time we're dealing with a number one no-no to anyone who's creative lower budget keep the budget down let's get to it [Music] looks like the front yard's been hijacked by parking a little bit for us they want to have parking in the front to have cars go by tell them they can't they want parking for two one two or three cars two cars two cars yeah so learn this brick uh i know it's not happening for you it definitely not happened for me it's like a strip mall or something so and there's this sort of ratty looking shrub across the front besides adding car parking here it'd be nice to have a little bit of a pedestrian entrance everybody's walking up this driveway how many times have we designed a home you're walking up the driveway you don't want to walk up a driveway hey i'm home can that all be cleared out clear open it up can you get access going on the other you know we try to look at things different like the driver is up here and the access comes in over here that's not a bad idea i don't think yeah to use the front yard a little bit better but this looks like this used to be the main door huh well look at me i'm standing in the garden yeah so get out of there this used to be actually this used to be the walkway they want to have a better front entrance there's nothing really working here is there i mean this wall was built at one point this was built another time and this was thrown in so no thought was really put into the design of this front entrance armed with measurements and a sense of purpose i'm ready to tackle this design there was a certain look and we've got to sort of fit this uh front engines make it appealing right i think it fit into the neighborhood too and we want to take away some vegetation i think and then add some more that will uh be more attractive to the house rather than hide the house and often of course we're reluctant to take a a mature tree out but it's in the way of of parking and that's really one of the goals of michael here so they want cars to be able to park but also get out of the way if the two cars maybe can get out of the way they can park pull one up and we're gonna do it in gravel gravel really gives a more uh a romantic feel to the garden it would be best to have a brick driveway and a gravel parking pad off to the side it's cost effective it's environmentally sound it has a romantic feel the old red brick the gravel will go beautifully with that you're looking all right see ya thanks lauren i'm going to give michael's property a complete drawing board makeover my aim is to make a beautiful yard despite having to accommodate a landscaper's worst enemy the car so the most important part of this design of michael is is creating an entrance way that extends from the street right around walkway breaking in wrapping around and directing the visitors or the mailman or whoever's coming over to the side of the house seems to deal with all the issues uh that we were concerned about that's great because the mailman has been complaining i've delineated this main area with four main trees smaller ornamental trees but then as as you open the door there's going to be a focal screen as a backdrop and michael that space there we're looking at what we want to do is a focal tree right in the middle of the brick area what kind of the trees do i'm not sure yet michael it's going to be an ornamental something small we want the tree to complement the house not obscure my design is going to tie in a pedestrian flow separate from the the car entrance michael likes the plan so it's time to get to work before we can bring in our construction crew we've got to get rid of those pesky trees certain trees do require permit for removal basically we measure the trees measure the diameter at chest height make sure it's under 30 centimeters if it's under 30 centimeters it's not protected by the tree by law we never remove trees without replacements in mind and that's what we have for michael's property his house is looking brighter already of course when things are going smoothly that's when a problem rears its ugly head lesson number one don't go off a property survey from uh the early 1900s i'm scared of court i just want to make pretty gardens man it really sucks when you make a pretty garden on the wrong property and now that the trees are gone we can get down to business and tear up this mismatched old yard while the fellas tear up the site i've had a chance to compare a design plan with the old property survey there could be an issue we've got a bit of a discrepancy between the property map that i've had in the neighbor apparently we've gone on to their property and kind of taken out a few of their perennials it's always best to review the basics of property lines and old site plans [Music] i've invited my friend tom a professional land surveyor to the office for some 4-1-1 tom when's a good time to call land survey as soon as you get something like this yeah i'm i've been working off a 120 year old survey it's not going to help you very much when it comes to broader lines you want to be very diplomatic if there's any signs of aggressiveness or you know any sort of you're taking it lightly it's going to end up in a quart bottle and you don't want that after you've got all your design and everything done you're down into the construction phase that's another time you might want to think about calling a surveyor if it's not clear where the boundary line is if there's no markers in the ground and you're going to be working adjacent to a property line it's best to have that line marked out clearly so there's no question and you know you're working within your client's property one of the things that i think most people make the mistaken assumption is that they actually their property goes out to the sidewalk the city actually owns 10 to 15 feet back from the edge of the sidewalk is part of what they call the road allowance or the municipal boulevard area the other thing of course is when you're working up against a property line which is a budding a neighbor you always really want to make sure you have a little talk with the neighbor first to make sure that you're both in agreement as to that everybody knows where the line is so i just got to be very diplomatic and make this thing work and make everybody happy you know what i've made amends with the neighbor and we're gonna help her out with a nice new little perennial garden when we're done speaking of gardens it's time to work out a planting plan for michael's front yard and side entrance i'm gonna eat my puffs while we're doing this that's okay this is healthy good for you i think the planting plan is going to be the most important part of this whole design what are you thinking i'd love to put in you know i'm thinking about a river birch or a canoe paper bark birch because it's so dark on the facade of that wall so what i want to do is put a tree in there that's going to be sort of illuminate the area and and sort of pop off the wall i love it this planting must be able to break up this little parking area with the walkway yep so i think the best thing to do is to use dwarf korean lilac people love dwarf prey and lilac at their front yard because when you're entering a house and guests are coming over you get that beautiful fragrance flower that lasts longer than other flowers which is great over to this quad i call this the quad area i really want to use to tie in with this beautiful hedge dwarf korean lilacs but in standard form they're they're sort of a very very a regal looking plant anything standard uh shows that shows people that you have arrived and they're used in historical landscapes and and that's why i want to use them this house is over 100 probably 130 years old so that's uh i thought it was appropriate evergreen four seasons of interest as you know evergreens the more evergreens you use the less maintenance your garden's gonna be i love you i love working with you all right let's go let's get the hell out of here [Music] when prepping a base for laying brick on the ground a pad of four to six inches of gravel is perfect for pedestrian walkways a pad of six to eight inches is minimum for laneways expected to accommodate cars and trucks things have gone pretty well so far the changes are significant as you can see one thing i really was surprised is how intricate the work is and how talented the crew is in actually placing the bricks i'm glad michael thinks so but we've hit a bit of a snag uh well we're laying the pad which is herringbone and uh we messed it up a little we're starting getting a little twisted so we decided just to move it up to our square line and start over this is a good one all square and then you get a break like this it's uh not quite made properly and then that that will just mess your pad up pretty bad elder bricks are perfect choice for that i i'm working perfectly with that i got a historical background i want to tie in a historical home with with appropriate landscape originally michael wanted to keep the uh existing credit valley stoop that walked right when you walk into this but i said to him you know you are landscaping the whole property i think we should remove this and and tune it up a bit so we got to choose a new stone i'm looking for a coping stone now for a client who has a really old established home in a beautiful old neighborhood so um i'm not sure what i want yet but something more traditional uh chiseled face you know tie in with the old home we have a few different choices we have the wireton chiseled face right so you see how the chiseled face there is what you're talking about when you overhang the toe edge of a stair this darker color would match the house beautifully don't you think and that's a local stone yes so that's kind of cool to use local stone but i really love the rough texture of it rather than this smooth finish this is beautiful too but i do too and i like the fact that water will sit in the grooves deepens the color when it's uh wet that's it so if you put a sealer on it that's the type of color you would get when it rains and you have these beautiful little puddles forming and you see the birds dancing in there pretend we're sparrows and they're drinking from the little we put a lot of care into sourcing the stone because it's easy to spoil a great design with inappropriate material perfect timing tapping at the door were you trying to get my attention or is that just no no no he's one of the funniest customers the transitioning between the the driveway bricks and the uh the gray bricks and the red the walkway bricks is excellent it's seamless the two different colors also help to find the walkway as a separate path from the driveway seeing all this great work happen to michael's yard gets me so pumped up [Music] nice we're trying to delineate the two properties it's pretty close together the property line issue there well we want to put on a row of beautiful beach and beach hedging is the way to go they're the most elegant hedge you can actually have in a garden that's my opinion winter interest and this is one of the main important things that we have in northern gardens we need winter interest the leaves stick on throughout the winter you've got that toasty brown foliage when we tell this to clients sometimes they don't believe you and here we are in spring and these leaves are still on from last fall the old leaves are pushed out by the new growth but you can see depending on the variety they do it at different times these can grow to 200 feet over a few lifetimes but not to worry in our lifetime but what i love them about that because you're never going to reach them because we'll be dead we'll be dead but if you plant these right next to each other and you prune them properly you can cut them off and just shear them every spring you're going to have an incredible backdrop hedge perhaps there's a little clump of birches these are beautiful paper bark virtual are they called paper bark black part well these are yeah these are bachelor niagara right which are river birch right so with this exfoliating bark oh is my tree diseased i mean there's a lot of trees that exfoliate like this you don't peel it off pulling off the bark is a no-no it exposes your trees to the environment and disease the great thing about these is that they're light in color because that's just fairly dark so they contrast beautifully and i think also at nighttime when these are lit up they would look absolutely spectacular the black trimmed house it's very dark as we say this will pop and i think we should use one not three you know generally those three clumpings i think one is good enough i agree yeah and i think that choosing a multi-stand one is nice too it just adds a little bit more drama some interesting and you know they all have friends all these can be there for eternity so you know they can all be with each other this is called the london plane tree and right now it it looks kind of plain but it's not a plane train yeah it's not a plane tree at all this is a this is an immature one i mean you know it's a 40 millimeter standard size and uh it's one size we always plant but as this tree gets older lauren as you know man the bark almost looks like it's pink by number seven yeah and it goes from brown to greens to all the colors of a camouflage beautiful tree you can see it's starting to exfoliate a little bit old traditional tree for an old traditional neighborhood let's get these plants over to michael's and into position this one i wanted to mimic the neighbors that's why i chose it you can see young and old just two doors down this is where the design really comes together even though the plants and trees are relatively young they bring the entire property to life michael was saying that he's got way too many rotten stumps and trunks and old fencing so what did i do i went and got some boston ivy what boston ivy does it's gonna cover everything so goodbye stumps our planting plan is never so rigid that we can't improvise on the day and change the placement on-site plus it makes me feel important to boss the plants around when that birch comes in it's going to pop it's going to come to come alive here that is if it ever gets here yeah i'm so upset that that birch isn't here today i'd love to see it in place i hope the tree gets here before i show the project to michael and the guys well we've relayed the bricks we replanted the neighbor's yard and guess what the birch is here so our problems have been dealt with we're golden we took out two trees here but we put this one back and it's a lot more airy and light brings life to this house it's like this house had way too much void brick in the front it's too dark now this pops out and makes it look awesome ah the pea gravel is being spread like icing on a cake a few more touches to ensure the plants are healthy and i'm pumped to show the boys this dramatic transformation you know james i don't even recognize this it's the same house nice man nice walkway it's quite quite a transition isn't it i love this not up the middle like swing it around the side that's wicked the house was so dark and foreboding before now it's really opened up it's beautiful there were some mature trees who were a bit ambivalent about removing them seeing what's what's been done and adding the paper birch i think is a huge improvement i have a little bit of a history background so it sort of came out when i was designing this garden you know i used the heritage brick and some of the more traditional plantings like the peonies and the evergreen you hedge we use the head rose of dwarf cream lilac the beach hedging which you see in england quite often you really want to go down the wall wait like it's like wow this is a fun kind of feeling to walk through the garden then you get to the front one of the goals we've achieved here is that we've diverted pedestrian flow around to the proper main entrance to the home you think the pizza guys and mailman will know now not to go to the uh front door since the landscaping's been done there hasn't been any more papers delivered there and no one's been walking into the glass it's really made a big difference for us are going to be cars parked here so even more so you want to use this pad for me it's the pea gravel i just feel like i'm in this beautiful euro garden i wanted an area where the car could park but when the car was gone it would look like a beautiful sort of a park-like setting it really has changed the way the house looks significantly it's given it unexpectedly a sense of much more [Music] the space and everything is really blends in with the house it makes the house look really extraordinary what a perfect lead around i love it it's calm in here so nice isn't it gorgeous well we're standing at the front of the house now and it's changed incredibly it's a pleasure actually to come home and see it one of the main problems with this house is that it has had no identity for the last 50 years people have been walking up a driveway we've used the materials uh the flow the geometry to tie the history of the home and the garden together this is an intersection it's an intersection to the front door to the front garden to the back garden it designates you have arrived at an entrance [Music] the landscaping has given the house a whole new complexion we see it now as a much more inviting place it seems to fit better into the neighborhood expectations were exceeded we couldn't be happier with the outcome should we play nikki nikki niner see anybody at home [Music] do you want to sit with the big beard oh he's just kidding that guy anyways

Channel: Abode

Views: 287,658

Keywords: Abode, DIY garden projects, artisanal garden design, backyard paradise creation, botanical sanctuary creation, exterior home improvement, front yard makeover, garden goals, garden improvement ideas, garden layout ideas, garden renovation goals, garden restoration, modern garden design, plant transformation, residential landscaping tips, stylish garden makeover, sustainable gardening, tranquil garden space, tranquil outdoor retreat, urban gardening, yard beautification ideas

Id: 7Miu9vuUuhE

Length: 20min 24sec (1224 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020