Hello everyone! Latest project has been to spruce up the backyard. The winter rains make a mess of it, compounded by the two mangy mutts that are constantly tromping through mud puddles. The dogs stay out all day long and are caked in mud by the time Rachel gets home--forcing a bath time ritual that neither she or the dogs enjoy. My plan is to raise the grade of the backyard and funnel the water to the side yards and away!
Lumber for the retaining wall. The wall should be roughly 12" tall when I get through.
This is part of the sink hole that leads to the back door. You can see it's trampled into a muddy mess, which is exacerbated by the rainy winter season.
Another 'before' picture.
Wall is in place! Additional gravel will fill in the muddy mess that I'll never really be able to get rid of.
Weed cloth underneath, followed by a ton of drainage gravel. The good river stones will go on top of it all!
Gym-land! We were going to put in a little deck, but then we realized how little we sat out there last year. So instead of a deck, there will be a pull-up bar and two dip bars! The first three posts are setting in this pic.
Transition from the gravel to the mulch area. Stone walking path still to come!
Time to back-fill behind the wall and raise the backyard's grade. The neighboring city sells this compost for $10 a truckload! After this compost I hauled an additional 5 yards of topsoil (truck bed = 1 yard)
Time for some fresh bermuda sod!
It's winter, so the sod is still 'sleeping'.
Sod is down, and the stone walkway is in place! Starting to come around! (Even Rachel is starting to like it!)
Temporary setback. The fence between our house & the neighbor's bit the dust...
Gave up on digging up the old concrete posts. I'm building the fence myself, not using the pre-assembled panels, so I can set the new posts wherever I want!
All of the hard work is done. Waiting on my neighbor to wake up and go buy the vertical cedar pickets with me (he works nights). We'll need 153 of them.
Having an air compressor is awesome! Vertical boards all installed in about 20min. And by building it myself, I saved 20% compared to the pre-assembled panels! Neighbor paying for half of the materials = awesome.
Pretty much there! The sod is greening up, and the new grade prevents the backyard lakes we've been getting. In the foreground is the completed gym-land. Along the back fence line we planted 5 different rose bushes, with large Texas rosemary shrubs in between each one.
Here are my two little raised garden beds. They've been caged off due to an issue with a fury excavator. The one on the left has two varieties of blueberry bushes (two, because this way they'll self pollinate). You can see a ton of spinach, kale, arugula, and other greens sprouting fem seed! Some succulents added in front of the wall for some color.
Here are two new fruit trees. A Granny smith apple and a Methyl Plum.
Along the new fence are two raspberry and two blackberry vines, as well as a fig tree. The giant Chinese Pistache tree is just putting leaves on as well!
Thanks for looking!
