I love to garden and really didn’t know I had somewhat of a green thumb. Except for those dang tomatoes!! Oh well… This house has a huge yard, more so than I expected frankly. In my niavety, I thought “Gosh how fun this will be!!!”. In reality, it took a lot of sweat to get the yard to its current state. The upside? — I never have to go to the gym!! 😎
Here’s what I started with. I wish I had taken more ‘before’ pics. When you look at this picture and then see the final pictures imagine the the whole yard looking like this. There was literally N-O-T-H-I-N-G in the backyard. The previous owners didn’t like to garden and that’s cool. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have bought the house if it was already ‘done’ and had no projects for me.
Soooo much potential. When you see the final pics you will see just how large this yard really is but imagine nothing but scrappy grass and NO curb appeal.
TASK #1 Steps
First task, add a staircase to go from the terrace level to the deck. I’d never done this before so there was a little trial and error. But in the end super happy with the result.
Fortunately we get regular rain so I never have to water these beds. I plant them in the spring and that’s about it for the season. Short of weeding and laying moth balls to fend off the deer, pretty hassle-free.
Task #2 Flagstone Patio
Next task, lay a flagstone patio and build a planter box. Again, never laid flagstone but lots of videos online so off we went…. Thanks to my sweet daughter who gave up her Saturday to lug flagstone pieces from the other side of the yard. I used polymeric sand as the ‘glue’.
Task #3 Drainage Resolution
Next task, deal with the drainage issue in the path from the side yard to the back yard. My sweet Steve and I took pick axes and any other tool that might work to dig a drain path and hook into the existing drainage system. LOTS of tree roots. Then I laid stepping stones and pea gravel. Fixed!
Task #4 Garden Gate
Yep there’s more…. I love garden gates! They just seem so romantic and inviting. I built the arbor and gates next.
Task #5 Screen Porch and Deck Expansion
The deck was existing but I’m craving a screened porch so I can have a dutch door. How great would it be to just open up the top part of the door in the Spring and Fall and listen to the birdies sing?? But for now, that’s on the list of ‘how can I make this happen??’
Flowers are super fun to work with and again, short of watering and lots of Miracle-Gro, pretty hassle free.
Enjoy your yard — get your exercise and vitamin D at the same time! A fun fact, 95% of the rocks and boulders in the pictures were dug up by me in the process of the backyard project. The very large ones were there already, thank goodness. I think my yard was a rock quarry in its past life! 😂😂
Take care and stay tuned for the next project!! (Never a shortage!)
Jennifer
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EAST OF WACO 