Corralling the garbage bins
As big as a red-eyed bull and twice as ugly, the City of Austin’s gray garbage bins and huge, blue recycling bins are creating angst among homeowners who don’t know where to park these monsters. If you put them in the garage, your car won’t fit. Stashed alongside your home, they’re an eyesore. Libby at Aurora Primavera gnashed her teeth over the size of these bins recently, at the same time that I was racking my brain on where to store ours and trying to solve the same problem for a client.
We love the expanded recycling service that the new bins allow. But let’s face it—they require a lot of space and do not enhance your landscaping. The previous owners of our new home tethered these bovines waaaay in the back pasture, around the far side of the house, and we found taking the trash and recycling out there to be a real chore. So we moved them onto the driveway in front of the garage, which, though handy, looked awful and blocked the car.
I knew we had to take action to corral these heifers and stable them out of sight. I donned my boots and spurs, coiled my lasso, and…called my handy-dandy fence builder, Guillermo. It was a land-grab, and I wanted to reclaim the side yard.
I’ve already shown you how the new fence worked magic in the back yard by opening up a view of a beautiful live oak. Here’s a “before” image.
And after.
But, more practically, the new fence gave us a storage spot for the trash and recycling bins, just off the driveway and convenient to both the front door and the back.
Here’s the side yard as construction began. While it looked fine, it wasn’t useful. The space was wasted.
Back by the live oak, the original fence and gate cut off the tree from the back yard.
I asked Guillermo to bring the fence up toward the front of the house. To save money, I kept the old gate, which was in good shape except for some mossiness that I cleaned away with soapy water and a little bleach. With a cut-out window and a soft, gray-green paint job, the old gate looks like new. Design note: The fence does not line up with the corner of the house; it’s set back about a foot, which always looks better.
Before, a line of aspidistra and some volunteer trees guarded the foundation.
After, a mulched path and cleared-out foundation provide a home for Big Blue and Old Gray.
Before, from the back yard looking toward the front, as construction began.
And after.
Garden design isn’t always about the fun stuff like new perennial beds and pergola-shaded patios. Sometimes it’s about corralling your garbage bins. Goodnight, little dogies.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Great job, Pam! Infinitely better than their glaring ugliness. I like how your new fencing incorporates that oak tree INTO the yard — and those chairs are spectacular. I LOVE colour!
Nice solution to the problem, Pam! I like that old gate.
Well, we certainly can’t have any of that old wasted space, now can we?! I laughed at that, as it was the first thing we did when we moved into our house as well — we moved the fence so we would have more usable space. That area now houses my garden and my greenhouse. The new fence is so pretty with the lattice on top – and the repainted gate is quaint. You are just moving right along there and it’s looking great.
As a gardener, I like how you used one new fence to solve two design problems. And as a writer, I enjoyed the cowboy metaphor you worked into your post. Good job!
That looks so nice. I love the design tip too. I wish that in rural OK we had recycling options. Right now, we just don’t. Perhaps someday. Love the new fence, and I think the gate is charming.~~Dee
At least ours are dark green! (And we have 3 of them, the garbage, the recycling and the Big Green Monster for yard waste.) Your solution is the same one we do, except that once it got really cold, the latch of the gate got frozen shut and I had to put my garbage bag into the neighbors’ bin. Then, after we got all that snow, the bings had to hang out on the driveway because we couldn’t even get to the gate, much less open it. At least you won’t have to deal with those problems.
Howdy Pardner. You did a fine job corraling these big ugly doggies in the side yard.
Can’t wait to see what else you do in that side yard.
Pam, I thought ours were ugly! Those are quite colorful! You did abeautiful job with ‘hiding them’. The potted plants look better then the line alone the foundation. We have a similar problem with big brown and big green! We also hid them behind a fence and it makes for a lovelier space! Gail
Thats a great fence. I love the lattice on the top too. No one will ever know the little doggies are hiding behind that gate!(-:
Brilliant! Now I’m looking again at my yard….
These new recycling systems are wonderful except for the bins! Loved your metaphor but alas our doggies live in the garage — eating up all the extra space. So we have to get the car out of the garage to herd them in and out which is annoying. We have an area at the side of our house where we could follow your lead, but winter is always the deal breaker here. The snow has had the path blocked off three feet deep since Dec. So we’re resigned to stabling them in the garage.
(And no, we haven’t shown any pix of the moon garden I mentioned — as of yet.)
What a good design tip Pam. We are having the same problem with our big ugly monsters. I have the same size containers and no matter where I put them they are an eyesore.
Not only does the new fence keep the dogies corraled and looking good to you, it improves the view for neighbors, too. Don’t any of these things come in a muted sage green or greyed-brown that could blend in a little and shut up? They’re always some loudly unnatural color. You came up with a very elegant solution to a problem, Pam.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I’ve got one of those blue recycle bins now, but mine has a bright yellow lid so it is really obnoxious! But I love that you can just throw all the recyclables in there and I think I’m recycling more because of it. Fortunately, I found a spot in my garage to keep it. I like your solution… very nicely thought out and executed!
Wow, no seriously, wow! That’s some elegant stealthing solution! We have similar bins in Ann Arbor–a dark blue one for trash and a really ugly brown one for compostable materials (only the bin is marked “compost” which of course irritates me because a) it is not compost and b) who would throw out actual compost?!). Our recycle bins are square and much smaller. We got to choose what size bins we wanted, and as I live alone, recycle, and compost, I chose the smallest options. I don’t have a garage so I tuck them behind my house. My neighbor could see them except I have a privacy screen between our properties at that point–but because I didn’t want to see THEIR junk, no vice versa! 🙂
Good solution! I thought for sure that there would be another creative use of a stock tank in this story! Just kidding — I covet stock tanks, though.
We keep our cans in the garage — where I COULD use the space for gardening, ya know! 🙂
Cameron
Form follows function and you have managed mightily with this new project. I love your new circular lawn area and have long thought of one for the back yard which is forgotten space. It needs a bit more of a design. Two intersecting circles is what I am thinking but maybe one like yours….oh, I can’t decide.
I can’t wait to see how your garden transforms around this wonderful fence. Great work!
What a beautiful. elegant solution. I do love nice structure…
Great solution and very elegant fence. This has always been one of my favorite fence designs. You are really progressing with the new garden. Can’t wait to see it.
I really love the way you saved the gate to your fence and painted it to look new! And it now has a new little window! How fun. 😉 And fabulous job hiding the gargantuan garbage monsters! You can’t hardly see them behind the new jungle of potted plants.
Talented writing, love the cowboy metaphor. The fence is really nice and the gate is charming. I’m fortunate to have a cement slab on the sideyard to corral my steers–out of sight out of mind. They’re certainly a far cry from yard art.
I love the new side yard, but I am still puzzled as to why the previous owner put in a fence diagonal to the property line, instead of on it. Seems such a strange thing to do, especially as they cut off that lovely tree from their garden.
It may have been a cost factor. It was the shortest and easiest way to enclose the back yard, which is required by city code when you have a swimming pool. —Pam
Very neat, Pam! I only wish all the Orcas were hidden as well as yours. I caught a lot of flack for complaining about these, but I stand by my beef. Do they HAVE to be so ugly?
Thanks for your comments, everybody. These big bins certainly elicit strong reactions from us gardeners. —Pam
Your corral looks great. One would never know it hides garbage cans!
Aiyana
When the county of Marin traded in our compact small stackable recycling totes for the HUGE trash cans ( 3 ) on wheels I found myself with a few new landscape design jobs designing compact living quarters for these new obtrusive looking cans. Hence , there are some pretty nifty looking ‘trash garages’ here in my neck of the woods. Many, if not most , match the existing architecture and landscape architecture which I find a more aesthetic way of blending an annex building.
For my large rolling trash cans I designed a double wide gate that they could be stored behind when not out at the curb. I like the idea that I can open either one or both of the gates which gives me the choice of either a 42 inch opening or a 7 foot wide opening. The gates match with the architecture of the building.
Thanks for your comment, Michelle. The first option sounds like a great solution if you have the cash. The second sounds more do-able for most people, as well as very practical. I designed something similar for a client recently too. —Pam
Nice job. I love the gate and color, your place looks fab!