Our yard is a work in progress. It started out as a deck and grass and each year is slowly changing. We wanted to see first what would grow where and how the yard was used before we did anything. We discovered that we get a lot of wind and blazing hot sun, our grass needs lots and lots of water as the wind and sun help keep it dry, as well with the slight sloping yard all the water ends up at the bottom of the yard. We love our deck, the size, the glass panels, the decking material. It’s now onto the yard, the vast space of grass that we just don’t use. Last year we added some Swedish Aspen’s along the one side the yard and a Japanese Lilac Tree to help create a screen from the street and green space behind us and shade from the sun….down the road. The Swedish Aspen’s are fast growing and drought and disease tolerant. The lilac tree grows a little more slowly but will create shade in the yard and beautiful flowering blossoms. This year we talked it through and have a couple more projects for the yard…once we figured out what would be involved we decided to do the smaller of the two this year and start the larger project next spring.
Our smaller project is to cut out the grass from around the Swedish Aspen’s and along the back fence, put in some large bark chips, add a vegetable garden, a tree and a strawberry “field”. Slowly over weekends and some evenings we accomplished our project. We built a raised bed for my vegetable garden with ROXproduct, it is a rock product that is made to look a little more like natural rock and since it is more natural you can get away with it not being perfectly straight, etc. We also used the ROX edging product around the whole area and it finishes it off quite nicely. We found a beautiful Flaming Maple tree and I can’t wait for the leaves to change and see the wonderful colors. I transplanted my strawberry plants from pots to the ground, in my strawberry “field” and boy was that hard frustrating work. The strawberry plant had grown so well that all the runners were all tangled into each other; it took much patience and grumbling to get it out and into the ground….thank goodness I did that part on my own. ha ha The finishing touch came when my Mom and sis, Jodi, helped me move my lily’s from the front flower bed to the new back flower section. I love lily’s — I love how resilient they are, how hardy they are and the beautiful colors but they were just overtaking my small flower bed and needed more room to grow. My mom also graciously gave me some Iris’ to add to the mix. I am looking for more perennial flowers — anyone know any good ones?!
Once the rain stops I will take a few pictures of the new backyard for everyone to see. I am very proud of it, it turned out exactly as I had envisioned it. Big thanks to everyone that helped out — Sean, Aunty Claudette, Grandma and Grandpa H, Grandma K, GG (with her words of advise) and Jodi. Owen and Brandon throughly enjoyed putting on their working clothes, digging in the dirt and making sure all the dirt went into the wheelbarrow. Now Owen and Brandon want to work in the dirt everyday; they are quite upset that the work is all done. Wait till next year boys!!
