Required Engineering,Computer Engineering,Software Architecture freelancer for Front Yard Landscape Design for DIY Install job

We are looking for a landscape design for our front yard on each side of our driveway. The main front yard is sloped with a huge blue spruce, a large boulder, a couple of rose of sharon shrubs, and a large round shrub we would like to keep. There is a very large maple on the other side of the driveway we will keep. We will need a small retaining wall on part of the main yard and would like planting berms and a curved small strip of lawn on the main front area; however it does not need to be large, as it is ornamental only. The other side of the driveway does not need to have any lawn. We like mostly mulch; however, some rock is good. For the smaller yard, we would like to sort of blend it into our neighbor's rock with drainage between the hards. We'd rather not bring in any additional large landscaping boulders if we can avoid the cost.

We will be bringing our privacy fence forward to the front corner of the house by the main front yard and will need the strip of lawn to go from the sidewalk to the fence gate on the side of the home to allow us to bring a lawnmower and wheelbarrows through. On the main large front yard, the rock area between our lawn and our neighbor's driveway is on our property. The small yard ends at the rocks.

We are in Colorado and would like to use plants appropriate for Colorado. We would like to add several snow crab trees, a pink crab apple that grows wider on the top, we love shrub roses, potentillas, and other dramatic flowering shrubs, as well as nice foliage and flowering perennials, shade perennials under the trees - hastas do well in Colorado , irises (we have a bunch to transplant - we were thinking maybe under the big maple tree?), spring bulbs, etc for blooming flowers from Spring to fall. We would like large groupings of plants for a dramatic effect often seen in Botanic Gardens and would like plants that will spread to fill the entire bed. We'd like some nice contrasting ground cover to fill in between plants. Contrasting textures in the rocks and plants would be nice.

We will do the work ourselves and will rent a small excavator, so we need a very detailed plan for us as do-it-your-selfers. We would like the gardens to look good very quickly, so planting fairly tight would be good.

Skills & Expertise Required

Engineering Computer Engineering Software Architecture