Today at 4pm, we had a landscape designer from the local nursery come over and look at our yard - she was great! The nursery has a great deal where you pay $60 for her to come consult for an hour, and you not only get the consultation, but you get a $60 voucher for supplies from the nursery, so it's basically free!
Diana (the landscaper) got so excited with our big blank slate of a yard she was practically dancing around - she used hand motions and sound effects to describe different plants, like grasses that grow in mounds and lean to the side or oat grasses that have the little dangling seeds... What was great is I could tell she was seeing our garden finished, and it was beautiful. It will likely take years to get there, but having a vision is the first step. And she gave us some first steps - start some fruit trees, and where to plant them, start some vines on our sideyard fence (on wires or trellises) to hide a little more of the neighbors' houses and create a nice private space, and start planning our hardscape - she went farther than we had imagined with a patio area, and also had neat ideas for where to put raised beds... like herb garden along our patio wall, so if we are barbecuing, we'll be able to reach over the wall and grab a handful of rosemary for our steaks, or cilantro, etc. Doesn't that sound great?
Visions of a backyard oasis are dancing in my head!
