Blue Sky!

We finally got some blue sky! It is just what my soul needed. The forecast for the next week looks beautiful. I hope to make some real progress on the yard. !

The backyard plans are starting to come together. I ordered 7 cubic yards of pea gravel from A Oregon Decorative Rock and had it delivered on Wednesday. The driver almost delivered it to the house across the street. Luckily, I was paying attention and stopped him in time.

We got the landscaping fabric laid down to cover the raised portion of the yard and near the fence and arborvitae to create shade-loving plant beds in the future. These will be covered with mulch which I will order in the next week or so. I still need to weed-whack behind the arborvitae and get the area along the fence cleaned up.

Barb came over one night last week and helped move/rake the pea gravel. Joe did a lot of trips with the shovel and wheelbarrow. I think I owe him a trip to the chiropractor!

Here is a view from the back corner of the yard. The gravel is almost done being spread on the raised portion of the lawn. The rest will be used for the unpaved portion of the garage. I am going to make a bed around the deck to camouflage the underside of the deck.

Here is Joe golfing in the backyard. Even with it partially done it has still be fun to spend more time out there, which we never used to do. Our backyard used to kind of feel like a weight on our shoulders. Now it is starting to feel like one more place we can hang out.

The Time Has Come

Well, the time has come to do something with our backyard. I wanted to keep a photo journal of our progress, so here it is.

Our neighbors behind us have made some beds surrounding their yard and so I gotta keep up. Plus, it would be so nice to be able to spend some time out there enjoying it in the summer.

Here are my goals with the project:

• Keep spending to a minimum (maybe around $1K).
• Create beds on the west fence and north fence.
• Cover the raised part of the yard near the fence with pea gravel and put a swing on the tree.
• Alter the garage from a junk catch all to part storage for our lawn equipment and part covered entertaining area.
• Use as much reclaimed material as I can.
• Relocate BBQ area from small deck to near the garage/entertaining area.

I am really excited about this whole concept. I think it is totally doable with some hard work.

I think we can have something worthy of a garden magazine photo spread when we are done...