by Andy Eveland
Placed in Homemade
Tagged with
Designer, Husband, Father & Lego fanatic.
When we first moved into our house, the yards were pretty barren. The grass was dried out and there were only three shrubs on the entire lot. Over the last few months, we have been getting the yards back into shape and I’m happy to say that today we have completely landscaped every square inch.
We started with the front yard, adding a dripper system and over one hundred new shrubs. We also had a large overgrown cypress that we manicured into a manageable topiary spiral. The neighbors though I was a bit crazy when I wrapped the cypress in yarn to get the perfect spiral shape.
As for the backyard, we needed to excavate nearly 5 yards of dirt to make room for the new planters. This was quite an undertaking. Not only is 5 yards of hard clay tough to dig up, but getting rid of it proves to be even more difficult. I felt a bit like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption, except instead of shaking pockets full of dirt into the yard, I took one wheelbarrow full of dirt at a time, and inconspicuously dumped it in the park by our house. The maintenance crew in the park is probably wondering how the plants got so full of freshly raked dirt. Once I got rid of all that dirt, Scotia and I poured curbs using my parents’ mixer and curb machine. We ended up using one yard of concrete to make our mower curbs. The backyard got nearly one hundred new shrubs and a large Mimosa tree. Ben ended up planting every shrub after I dug all the holes. It turns out our family makes a pretty good landscaping team. Ben also helped install the dripper system in the backyard and fertilized all the new plants.
The last step in the yard was getting the rock to fill in all the planters. We headed out to Whitewater to get the rock. They have acres and acres of different types rock. We decided on a rock called “Las Vegas Rainbow” that has a sparkly salmon/pink color that contrasts well with the plants. I laid down landscaping fabric to prevent the rocks from getting buried and to help keep weeds out.
With the yards landscaped now, I’m not sure what to do with my free time. Scotia suggests that I could relax and enjoy the yards, but I keep looking at my wood-shop tools and wondering what I could build to go in the backyard… window planters, patio furniture, or maybe a overly-elaborate dog house. I’ll keep you posted!
