Back Yard Dream or ???
My wife and I are ready to hire a landscaper for our backyard. We live in an attached house in Greenpoint that is 12 feet wide; the yard, too, is 12 feet wide by 30 feet long. Our desire was to have brick walls surround the yard and brick pavers on the ground. But someone…
My wife and I are ready to hire a landscaper for our backyard. We live in an attached house in Greenpoint that is 12 feet wide; the yard, too, is 12 feet wide by 30 feet long. Our desire was to have brick walls surround the yard and brick pavers on the ground. But someone told us that the brick walls would block a beautiful evening breeze we get in the summer time that comes into our house through the rear windows. Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of this? I just don’t see 6-foot-high walls of any kind blocking a breeze, but this person seemed certain of it. Thank you.
I also live in Greenpoint. My yard is walled on the back and right sides (a garage’s back and the windowless side of a building) and has a low chainlink fence on the open side (left). I would not want the barrier and blocakage that a solid and tall fence would provide. We’d feel too boxed in, and the smallness would be emphasized. I think that a sense of openness is ideal. If you must have some privacy, chain link fences can have ivy and other plants grow on/through them. You can also buy the vinyl (different colors available) inserts that you weave through the chain link fence’s ‘holes’. I understand that if you and neighbors are all outside, then you want to have some visual privacy…
Hope you are thinking about planting trees, shrubs, plants, etc. We have and our little oasis is a mental joy for us, it smells great and the variety of birds have made our yard their home and / or feeding ground.
My dream would be for all my neighbors to plant and maximize their little urban courtyards. How lovely for all to enjoy, including the birds.
Good luck.
I highly reccomend a wall of english Ivy (growing on chainlink even) instead of brick. Even if you do a wall, you’ll want green all around you.
English Ivy grows quickly and stays green in winter.
I would also highly reccomend blue stone over pavers.
Keep it looking as natural as possible, and you’ll have a great sanctuary.
12’x30′ and surrounded by brick?
Are you recreating the Ryker’s outdoor experience?
Just add some razorwire on top.
PS The ultimate in prison recreation is the caged in basketball court on top of the (currently closed) Brooklyn House of Detention.
Thank you all for your help. If we do go with the brick walls and the pavers, we definitely plan to install a dry well at the back of the yard and have two drains running to it. So the pavers and puddling is not a problem. On the one hand, don’t want to block the breeze; on the other, sure do like the look of brick.
It’s not a tank. It’s a hole in the ground supported by cement blocks inside and the water that goes into it is absorbed into the ground but way deep. It needs to be far enough from your house to not get the ground wet near your foundation though – 10 feet or more back.
Please tell me how a drywell works. Does the water accumulate in a tank under the paving? How do you empty the tank when it fills with water? Thanks!
You definitely need a drain and drywell in your yard if you have any cement in it, but especially if you have a brick wall. We have a chain link fence all around and though it isn’t pretty it means all the nearby yards are able to absorb the rainfall together into all our grassy areas and flowerbeds. A neighbor who has a brick wall along one side of his yard has a pretty bad problem with water pooling at the back of his house during a rain. We don’t have that problem at all after digging a new huge drywell, and our neighbors on the other side don’t have that problem. So it might be the brick wall. I can’t see if he has a drywell. If he has one it’s an older one and might be shallow.
We have a brick patio surrounded by 6’stockade fencing. The fencing does block the breeze somewhat; brick should block it even more. That shouldn’t be a show-stopper if you really love the look of brick.
Make sure your landscaper puts in a drain (with a giant hole underneath it) and has the yard slope toward it slightly. The drain has saved our yard from flooding at every rainstorm.
– Mrs. Fartan
Our garden used to have cyclone fences surrounding it. These were replaced over the years by wood fences less about 6′ foot tall. They definitely block the breeze and the result has been we get insects and fungus like things attacking the plants in the corners, which didn’t appear before, because there is no longer any breeze there. I would recommend you consider using those large 1′ floral pattern white bricks becuase they would create a sense of privacy but still allow for air circulation. I wish we had gone that way.