My Plan for My Mom's Yard... It all started with Hugulkultur

This is the collage of proposed plan.

Azaleas, Hostas, Aureolo Hakone Grass, Incrediball Hydrangea, Weeping Norway Spruce and Ferns along with a Rock Edging.

I thought I already posted the state it was in after we moved a bunch of dirt from the pool dig over to regraded and make perimeter beds but maybe not.

It started after I saw a show on Hugulkultur. They talked about re-creating the same environment that happens on the woodland forest to make a wonderful loamy soil. That made me think of my mom's yard which has  two big oak trees with tons of fallen sticks, leaves and such. What better way to make raised perimeter beds! So you can later cardboard, junk mail, garbage (same stuff that goes in compost, but the most important part is the wood. The deader the better.

So I put down cardboard first along back fence. Then covered with sticks and twigs. 

I collected wood all over the yard and they had these great piles of wood and sticks that were already partly decomposed.

More sticks over the leaves again.

More sticks and leaves and branches.

Then the dirt came over from pool excavation.

First pile...

A lot of dirt.

I regraded along the house to 4 feet or more away.

Built up box that protects crawlspace another 4 inches.

Hacked down the bulk of the lilac bushes and stray weed trees.

Old dog kennel is great place for leaf compost.

Shady Side Yard New Collage

I'm trying to make my collages closer to the real thing now as we  get closer to the possibility of installing  some  (stress SOME) of this landscaping.

This is the current side yard sorry state.

This is sort of in perspective.

It's just impossible to  represent the landscape using this method and maintain correct perspective. For instance the back fence in the collage below is shorter than in the photograph. However, I see now that the house doesn't even look the same so I distorted it or didn't use that picture?

The weeping willow, sigh... I've gone back and forth trying to decide if that's a good or bad idea. If I was to put one anywhere that's the most logical spot. It's the lowest point of our yard and the neighbor has had trouble with water in his basement.  I suspect the water drains from our yard or did before. We have re-graded it and before the entire backyard sloped toward him. Good for our water level bad for his. Now I notice we have standing water where the pool was last year. It doesn't help that the grading was done for the ground but we haven't added back the gravel, patio, pool, etc. that will bring that back up. However, I think there is still going to be some water heading toward that corner so what better than a willow to soak it up. But I'll have to prune it every year to keep it fairly manageable. My understanding is they grow fast.

So there's the meandering dry stream bed. I would rather have more uniform sets of plants in groups so it'll be neater still not so random. Since repetition would be soothing. Hopefully I can start to put this in after we get the pool back in. If I get too carried away it'll be trampled by the frontloader.