Landscaping, porch and deck pictures or plans

[MattInAR]

Hi there,
I'm in the process of landscaping my property, 1 acre of flat former farmland and I'm looking for ideas slated toward mobile homes. Something to make my home look more established and not looking like it was dropped off in a field. I'm also interested in anyone's pictures of porches or decks they have added.

Check my gallery for a pictures of my place and what I've changed over the past couple of years.

Thank you, Matthew

[Yanita]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the site!

Well I can give you all kinds of ideas, but it really depends on what style of landscaping you are looking for.

As for decks, well at our last home we had a split level deck with a water garden installed on it. A bridge crossing over a large water garden that wrapped around part of the lower deck. Hmm, not sure if I have any old pics of that.

The home we have now came with a standard 12x24 deck in the back. Since that received the intense late afternoon sun it was always to hot to sit there in the late afternoons. Well we built a pergola on that end of the deck and planted some climbing roses and a few other vines. Now it is shady there, and helps protect the home from the intense heat.

How long have you lived in your home at that location? What type of trees are native to your area? Do you get full sun all day, alot of wind? There are many things to consider when getting ready to landscape.

Please post some of your thoughts and we can certainly get you out there digging in the dirt!

Look forward to helping you.

Merry Christmas,
Yanita

[MattInAR]

Thanks Yanita, I would like to see that pergola. I was thinking about some kind of shade structure on the front of the house as that is the west side and gets full sun all afternoon.
This is my third year in the house. Its windy here from October through May. Then hot and muggy the rest of the year. Very sunny with no shade close to the house. I've planted eastern red cedar and loblolly pines on the north, west and south sides of the property for windbreaks. Also an inner row of leyland cypress closer to the house on the north. I have red and silver maples, red oaks, honey locust and red bud trees planted for shade. All my trees are seedlings so it will be a while before they can do their job. I don't have a style per say, but I do love gardens instead of open expanses of grass. The plants I've put in around the fondation are still quite small and they don't give the house that anchored look.
I can't seem to find many pictures of landscaping around mobile homes, and mobile homes do have a distinct look. I really want the land and home to fit together and I'd like to see how other people achived that with their homes.
That'senough for tonight.
You'all have a great Christmas,
Matthew

[texasprairierose]

Hi Matthew,

I don't have too many pictures of our exterior but I did find a couple. I almost don't want to post the before pictures but I will just to show the difference. In the "before" picture, (when the house was painted blue) we just had a rickety wood deck at the front door and as you can see, the while pillars looked like they were floating several feet above the ground and the house did look like it was just dropped in the middle of a field.





In the last five years, we have really given our house a facelift...we have replaced all of the exterior doors, replaced almost all of the windows, painted, and added shutters. We also tore down the old deck and had a concrete porch and sidewalk poured. We copied some of the landscaping from neighborhoods in town and we planted taller shrubs under the pillars so that they didn't look like they were floating anymore and then we planted smaller, shorter shrubs between them to help disguise the skirting. We also planted a climbing rose bush that we trained on a trellis along with an iris patch.




I don't have any pictures of it but several years ago my husband installed sprinklers systems in our front, back and side yards and we planted tall fescue in the back yard...it is beautiful but takes a lot of water and care...so we planted bermuda in the front and side yards. Since we live in the Texas panhandle where it is as flat as a pancake, my husband created some landscaping relief or small mounds in different places in the front yard. We have planted a few trees but our acreage has dozens and dozens of mesquite trees.

Diane

[peachlizzard]

Beautiful job! I love what you have done to your home!

[texasprairierose]

Thank you! We are finishing up the kitchen remodel...I will post pictures when we are done.