Stuck on backyard ground cover project
There has GOT to be someone who has done something similar...
We have a lovely backyard that I've added border plants and planter beds to over the ten years we've been in this house. However, the "grass" is a variety of weeds. That's overall fine, truthfully--they're green when they should be green and require no care! But some of it is burr clover, AND we got a dog a year ago who has dug some holes. The result is that it's a little treacherous to walk through our backyard, and I'd like to hire someone to level it out and put something down that's not weeds.
The way this feels sticky to me is the scope of the project. I don't want a full design--I just want someone to work around what we have, level the ground, and put something else green down that's not a traditional lawn. Bonus points if the same person can build a little walkway from our side gate to our paver patio in the backyard, but I could also deal with that separately. What's the order of operations and who can help:
- Advise what the ground cover should be? Which local-ish nursery could tell me what the best options are? (I'm in North Oakland.)
- Is there a time of year this should happen? Or does that depend on the ground cover chosen?
- Can I just hire a landscaper to do this, if I've chosen the ground cover already? Like, someone who's dropped their card on my front step? Or do I need a full-fledged garden professional? (Or does that also depend on the ground cover?)
- Am I totally overthinking this and I should ask a landscaper or a design firm? (I really doubt a design firm would want to deal with me, considering the small scope of the project. Also, we have a trampoline in the middle of the backyard with which we are unwilling to part. I might be a nightmare of a client for them.)
Thanks for any thoughts.
Parent Replies
EBMUD offers a Landscape Design Assistance Program that you might find helpful. You book a 2-hour session with one of the program’s approved professional landscape designers to receive recommendations on plant choice, layout, and/or irrigation ideas for your landscape project. You will pay the designer a $200 fee at the time of service and then be reimbursed by EBMUD upon successful completion of your landscape transformation.
I can recommend Laura Kukulski with Wild Things Garden Design who is part of this program.
I did a small patch of lawn alternative last winter, as part of a garden overhaul. From what you say, you don't really need anyone but a landscape contractor. We used Ecopacha- they were great, and could totally do a job such as levelling, putting in the groundcover and installing a walkway. A full designer is overkill, and when I looked around, I couldn't find any that would take a teeny job, and most wanted to do the installation as well. The EBMUD program sounds like a great improvement for that part!
You do need to figure out what you want as the groundcover- if your dog digs, no groundcover is going to stop that. And if it's going to get hard use- dog running over it every day, people walking over it every day, etc., then your choices are pretty limited. Some groundcovers come in sod form and can be laid all at once and you just need to water and keep off for a few weeks it until it settles in. Others only come in plugs and you need to wait for it to fill in and that might take half a year or more. I don't know of any place that could walk you through the choices- there may be some place, but I don't know of one- maybe that's where the EBMUD design assistance could be useful.