Weekend Projects

We got motivated this year to try to create a more “finished” backyard.  We had always planned to put in a fire pit in the back corner of our yard, but haven’t found anyone who could make the connections for natural gas yet.  So, we’ve had a pile of pavers there for over three years in a dirt area that loves weeds.  I’m sure I have a better before picture than the one that follows, but I don’t have it in me to search through years of photos, especially when past years are archived on disks. 

The before picture from Emma’s birthday party.  Yucky weeds (it’s been much worse…you can ask my father-in-law).

You can see the pile of pavers here that have been there for 3+ years.  That pile made plenty of homes for little critters. 

I’m pleased to present the final product of three Saturdays of full-day work and part of today with some finishing touches.

We sill plan to add more plants in the future, but I am so loving the way this turned out.  It really was a lot of work, but it was so worth it. 

This weekend, we also decided that we needed to landscape the side of our house.  On one side, our neighbor’s house is about 10 feet from ours and our gate to the backyard is on the other side of the house, so we’ve just never done anything with it.  Again, it’s been almost four years here.  Apparently, we were feeling energetic this weekend? 

Our house is on the left in this picture.  Four years of weeds here.  I got half cleared while Justin went to go buy the rocks.  Then, our neighbor came home (I’m sure he was so thrilled that he got home in time to help us!) and he and the son of another neighbor (Max)came and helped me finish clearing the weeds. 

Max gave me quite the education about spiders, beetles, and potato bugs while we were clearing the weeds.  Definitely way more than I wanted to hear while clearing stuff and disrupting homes of critters, but since his mom is my gardening guru, I know it was in his genes!  Plus, he was digging with me, so who can complain about that?

 

We weren’t going for anything fancy here. This area really doesn’t get seen too easily, but it’s better drainage and NO WEEDS!  Bout time! 

Yes, we’ve been absent from any niece/nephew weekend activity for a few weeks, but with good reason!  Now we need some company to enjoy our backyard with!

I leave you with one final picture of Emma in the sand box today, just because she’s so cute.  The boys wouldn’t hold still long enough for me to get a good photo of them!

The area she’s in is next on the to do list….someday!