My friends Linda and Jim’s backyard is completely destroyed by their 3 teenager sons and their playful husky. They have had the house for twenty years, it has gone through a few remodeling and additions, but no work has ever been done to the yard. In recent years, Linda has tried to build a vegetable garden, but the dog keeps chewing up her plants. With one boy about to leave the house for college and her strong desire for a vegetable garden, she and Jim decided it is time to redo the yard. They asked me for ideas. They have a small budget, and plan to fix up the yard on their own.

The only sunny spot in the yard is a patch of land by the south-west corner of the house. All the wood planters and retaining walls in the yard are need to be replaced. There is an old hot tub in the yard, but it is no longer useable. The boys use it as a fire pit for all kind of experiments. They also envisioned a water feature in the yard. Linda would like to use stone walls in her yard while stay within her budget.

After a few studies of the site, I generated a master plan for the garden. I propose using gabion wall for all of the new retaining walls in the garden. The metal cages for the gabion wall are pretty inexpensive, and Linda would have many choices of stone to choose from in a wide range of prices. There will be an enclosed gardening area, by the south-west corner of the house, taking advantage of the sun shine. At the current location of the hot tub, there are few options:  One, they can rebuild the hot tub; Two, they can remove the hot tub and pave the area for outdoor siting; Three, they could pave the area as proposed by option Two, and install an above ground hot tub later if desired. The three main ground cover I propose are grass, decomposed granite, and mexican pebbles.