Backyard Update--August 2010

It has been just over a year since I moved into my house and I have been extremely busy fixing up the place (it was a REPO and had a lot of fixing up to do). My primary target has been the yard--My grandparents always had nice gardens that I enjoyed growing up and my mother has always done well with her own garden. Add to that my travels through Europe and viewing various gardens (particularly the gardens as Skansen, Stockholm, Sweden) and I knew that I wanted to have a nice garden of my own. When I purchased my house, it was the size of the backyard lot that sold me on it--there was so much that I envisioned that I could do with it. All of my cash investments and physical labor is now paying off as I finally have the yard that I had envisioned just over a year ago! I hope that you enjoy the pictures, and, of course, I would love to have all of my family and friends over for a BBQ or something of the like, so whether you are visiting from out of state or are a friend who is over on a weekly basis, please come enjoy good eats, good company, and a cozy yard (I think it is time to set up the volleyball net, fire up the jacuzzi, and have a little fun). If you would like to see the transition just scroll down through previous posts and you will see the progression as the yard was developed (see posts on April 18, 2010 and November 19, 2009). It has come a long way from it all just being dead grass that I tore up and then just having a lot of dirt. The earliest pictures that I have are after I had already marked out the border with edging stone I had purchased and the stones for the walkway--I should have taken some pictures when there was nothing back there but the lamppost and a whole lot of dirt!
p.s. A special thanks to all of my family and friends who have helped to make this possible.

Back Yard Update

It has been a while since I have given an update on my yard. A couple of months ago I decided that I did not like the way my lawn in the back yard was growing--patchy and full of weeds (trying to bring it back from being dead--neglected as my home was a foreclosure). So I got this bright idea of tearing it all out, so one Saturday I rented a sod cutter and spent all day cutting out my ratty lawn. It took some time to figure out how to get rid of it all. I spent the next month rolling up and piling the grass in preparation to be discarded. I discovered that I could rent a dumpster and do the work myself, but I was fortunate to find some workers who would do the job for me for the same price, so they hauled the sod away.
I have since dropped a load of cash on edging bricks which I have since put in myself and more cash on various plants and flowers. I have managed to plant one box of hedges, two beds of flowers, and some perimeter flowers (of course the one garden that has the hedges planted is in the shadows--hard to see in the photos). I have additional hedges waiting to be planted. You can see this clearly in the pictures (I have four additional "gardens" planned). It is time consuming--I spent all of last Saturday planting and I try to get home each day to use the one hour of daylight I have after work to get out in the back. Of course, it has been a few days since I have been out there thanks to other commitments (I've recently been called as a Ward Missionary and have received a home teaching assignment, both of which require some work in the evenings; additionally I have been working on several committees at work: WASC Curriculum Coordinator, 10th Grade District Writing Assessment Trainer, 10th grade Pacing Guide Committee, Leadership Training, etc., and of course I cannot neglect my commitment to the gym). Needless to say, I am always busy with something these days.
Anyhow, I hope that you enjoy the pictures of the yard--it is starting to come along but it has a long way to go!