We’ve been through dozens of what ifs when it comes to our side yard pictured below. We even considered a pool in this space. In Denver, pools have to be 10 feet away from any existing foundations, so between our neighbor’s house and ours, we don’t have enough room.
The first thing that absolutely has to go is the sidewalk beside the house. It’s cracked right by the foundation, the drain extensions running under it are blocked, and it just needs replacing. When we have our back patio removed and re-poured, we will get this sidewalk removed as well. The second thing that has to go is the pea gravel. It goes everywhere. It gets stuck in the bottom of our shoes and ends up in the house. It’s a choking hazard and it clogs up our vacuum.
Enter turf and diamond pavers. I have dreamed of this ground cover for a few years now, and this is the perfect spot for it because we don’t have to pull up any grass—so we won’t be contributing to the urban heat island effect any more than we are already. Also this area has already been leveled and cleared of growth, so it will be a relatively quick and easy transition.
Here’s a mock-up I made with a free drawing tool online. I mean, really this could have been made with the Paint app.
Since making this mock-up a few things have changed. Instead of replacing the sidewalk next to the house, We are going to have a bluestone border all the way around the patterned part. And the layout is going to be slightly different . . .
There will be a 4ft garden bed along the fence line. Do you know anyone who doesn’t dream of an outdoor dining area bordered in hydrangeas? Just me? If you follow gncgarden on Instagram, you know what I’m talking about. Lucky for me hydrangeas grow reasonably well in Denver. Unlucky, for me, they most definitely need a water supply. So I came to the compromise of alternating Russian Sage and Hydrangeas for our border around our side-yard. But before I commit, I’ve ordered one Hydrangea and plan to plant it along our fence line, just to be sure it actually grows well in our yard.
We are sadly going to have to cut down one of our trees. It’s growing at an angle, which is awesome from a shade perspective—that area is literally always shaded, but it also means the root-system is compromised and you can see the roots above the pea gravel line, which are covered in suckers every year. It’s also growing toward the house, so we could be in a bit of a pickle if it ever came down.
I should also say that this space is quite narrow, and will feel even smaller when we add in the border flowers. Though judging by THIS beautiful garden, that may be a good thing!
If you love the way hydrangeas look but they won’t work in your yard because of their water, sun, or zone requirements, here are some alternatives: the butterfly bush (full sun, low water, zones 5-9, flowers summer and fall), the button bush (full sun or full shade, medium water, zones 5-9, flowers spring and summer), snowball viburnum—this is your closest option but it can grow more like a tree—(partial shade to full sun, average water, zones 3-8, spring flowering), garden phlox David—these grow as individual plants but they spread spontaneously—(full sun, medium water, zones 4-8, flowers late summer through fall).
The side yard will primarily be a dining area. I’m envisioning a concrete table that can withstand the elements, so that we don’t have to worry about covering it and any debris blows off easily. We also need one that can sit at least 10 people. Because most tables comfortably fit 8, we can compromise by doing dining benches on the long sides instead of chairs. Here are some that I love:
The dining table will go where the side-leaning tree is in the photo below. Behind our dining table, we are hoping we have enough space to do a small seating vignette around our coffee-table fire pit. We put A LOT of thought into where we want to put this piece. It’s one of the first things we bought when we moved here, and we really love it . . . but we don’t love the propane tank and line. We thought seriously about hard lining it in, but we don’t really want to be married to always having it in the exact same place / or replacing it with a new fire pit when it breaks. We even considered putting it on our back patio in front of the sofa. (Psst: we ultimately decided against this because having a larger table will be better for game nights.)
Another idea I had was that we could bury our propane tank holder (that black square box in the photo below that looks like a side table) underneath one of our 24”x24” stone pavers and bury the line. I did some research, and it turns out there is a certain amount of space required around the propane tanks, so this wouldn’t be the safest option. While I was looking I also learned that it’s actually quite dangerous to buy a fire pit that has the propane tank built in underneath, but not only that, they tend to be way to high for standard outdoor furniture. So our plan now is going to be to trench out the line underneath one of the diagonal turf lines, and put the propane tank/box it’s concealed in in the planter bed.
The other consideration I’m wrestling with right now is what we want to do about lighting. It’s a good time to be thinking about hardwiring electricity to some areas of the yard, but I’m not sure we need to over do it. I actually really like relying on solar lights in the yard. And I love that they don’t need outlets or wires. So for this area, I’m thinking solar operated string lights, and solar operated path lights or solar operated spotlights in the new garden beds. I also love these battery operated rock lights, though they would be more convenient if they were solar.
For the stairs, I definitely want to take advantage of re-pouring concrete to hardwire in stair lights. I like these, and I think with our curved stairs, we will do three per step, right, left, and center. Since we are adding siding to our house, I’d also like to hardwire in a wall light on either side of our door.
I have dreams of one day putting my greenhouse here, and if you haven’t seen Julia Aldridge’s greenhouse, I highly recommend that you go to her page immediately.
For my project, I’m envisioning a greenhouse made out of the old windows I saved from our house. They are the original 1900s windows with leaded glass and layers of paint and gel stain, so they will need a clean-up.
Below is the best approximation I could get with a free AI generator:
