I have been meaning to write an update on this subject for a while now, so here it is. We made enormous progress on the backyard transformation during the month of March. We finished the patio in February and immediately after that I wanted to finish the brick path that led from the patio to the shed, so that I could get the garden beds in order and so that I could walk from the house to the shed without getting my feet muddy. There was already a partial path in place that the original homeowners had installed. But it was the wrong shape and going in the wrong direction. So I was able to pull up all of the bricks they had used, and re-use them, and I was also able to re-use the path retention boards and the sand. I just had to dig everything up, move the boards to form the shape of the path that I wanted, put the sand base back in (and add in a bit more since the new path was bigger), and re-lay the bricks. It sounds so easy to just say it like that, but in reality it was a beast of a project. It didn't help that I could only work on it in two hour chunks at nap time, and Michael wasn't able to help much because he was working long hours at work during a particularly busy period they were going through. But in the end I got it done.
Once the brick path was done I was able to use more retention boards to shape and build a couple of new planting beds. Once those beds were cleaned up and in place, it was time to build one last path down the length of the yard, leading from the patio, to the compost pile. So I dug up about an inch of dirt throughout the footprint of the path area, installed landscape edging along the length of the grass, to prevent grass from growing into the path, and then laid down landscaping fabric. Finally we bought two truckloads of gravel and filled in the path with crushed gravel.
Once all of the hardscapes were complete, it was time to clean everything up and make it all look pretty. I laid down bark to cover the exposed soil in some areas, planted grass seed in the areas where grass needed to grow, planted shrubs and perennials in the two new beds that I created, and finally, placed solar path lights along the edges of all the paths, to light the way at night and give everything a finished look. My main goal was to have the backyard require as minimal maintenance as possible, but I did allow myself one bed where I could plant annual and perennial flowers. I decided that I wanted all of the flowers to be white, so I plated a mix of white phlox, peonies, snapdragons, petunias, anemones, and lobelia.
Finally, the last project of all happened out in the front yard. When our builder hired a landscaper during the completion of our house, I told the guy that I wanted to make all of the decisions regarding which plants he chose to buy for our yard. I gave him a list of acceptable plants and talked with him in person about what my vision for the landscape was. Instead what happened was that the guy just picked out a bunch of plants (azaleas and rhododendrons mostly) without asking me and everything got shoved in and I had very little say whatsoever. At the time I was annoyed, but I also just wanted to get moved in and so it went on the back burner.
My vision was a very Northwest native type of landscape. I wanted it to look finished, but naturalistic. I wanted native, but attractive plants, and I wanted a dry stream bed winding its way through the front yard. Of all of the projects that we completed this winter, this was the easiest of all. All we had to do was rake the bark and dirt away and form a little trench in the shape of a stream. Then I laid down landscaping fabric and we gathered a bunch of large boulders and medium rocks that we had rescued from the original house, and laid them down along the edges of the fabric. Then I went and got a truckload of river rock and filled in the trench with those and spread them all out amongst the larger rock to make it all look natural. Lastly, I added native plants like sweet flag, ferns, carex and salal. I also planted 6 dogwood shrubs along the northernmost border and a row of sword ferns along the edge of the rain garden. I took the azaleas that the landscaper had planted, and moved them to the back yard. I also took the rhododendrons he planted and moved them to another area in the front yard. Finally I filled in the beds on either side of the front door with native ferns and mahonia. All in all I am very pleased with the outcome. It all looks very natural and attractive and best of all, its very low maintenance!
Also see: Part I
Part II
Once the brick path was done I was able to use more retention boards to shape and build a couple of new planting beds. Once those beds were cleaned up and in place, it was time to build one last path down the length of the yard, leading from the patio, to the compost pile. So I dug up about an inch of dirt throughout the footprint of the path area, installed landscape edging along the length of the grass, to prevent grass from growing into the path, and then laid down landscaping fabric. Finally we bought two truckloads of gravel and filled in the path with crushed gravel.
Once all of the hardscapes were complete, it was time to clean everything up and make it all look pretty. I laid down bark to cover the exposed soil in some areas, planted grass seed in the areas where grass needed to grow, planted shrubs and perennials in the two new beds that I created, and finally, placed solar path lights along the edges of all the paths, to light the way at night and give everything a finished look. My main goal was to have the backyard require as minimal maintenance as possible, but I did allow myself one bed where I could plant annual and perennial flowers. I decided that I wanted all of the flowers to be white, so I plated a mix of white phlox, peonies, snapdragons, petunias, anemones, and lobelia.
Finally, the last project of all happened out in the front yard. When our builder hired a landscaper during the completion of our house, I told the guy that I wanted to make all of the decisions regarding which plants he chose to buy for our yard. I gave him a list of acceptable plants and talked with him in person about what my vision for the landscape was. Instead what happened was that the guy just picked out a bunch of plants (azaleas and rhododendrons mostly) without asking me and everything got shoved in and I had very little say whatsoever. At the time I was annoyed, but I also just wanted to get moved in and so it went on the back burner.
Also see: Part I
Part II
Comments
Post a Comment