Backyard Project

 

After a year hiatus, I am back to the blog.  After tearing down our old sinking, damp garden shed at the end of 2011, we spent the summer of 2012 building a new one.  It is a marvelous shed, and at some point I will do another post featuring it, because it is truly the most charming garden shed one could wish for.  

After tearing down the old shed, and building the new one, we had a big mess in the backyard.  The old shed had gardens around it, and a little brick patio in front, and a sagging, lopsided arbor.  The arbor came down, the brick patio came out, most of the plants were trampled during the destruction.  Two overgrown honeysuckle, and two ferocious wisteria had to come out.  That left a lot of dirt, which sprouted weeds, and as a bonus enticed Riley the dog to dig enormous craters to lay in and then come bounding into the house, covered in dirt. Ack!

So this year, we had big ambitions to "fix the back".  But then life happened, like it will, and we didn't actually start anything until August.  Now it is a little late in the season to expect to finish this big project, but we are gamely getting on with it.  Mostly it is Jeff getting on with it, because I sprained my ankle a week ago, and am not much help.  But I draw pictures and tell him all the things I want to do, to which he responds by either grumbling unintelligibly or else by long and loud protest.

Right now we are hauling in rock, to cover the open dirt and weeds, and eventually will circle the shed.  The ground back there is so wet that mulch will rot much too fast; even though I swore I would never bring rock into a garden, we are doing that.  The weeds are gone by the old shed, and rock has been brought in there mostly, except for where some Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate has sprouted. I'm waiting for it to set seed so I can save some for next year .

In the middle of the back we are putting in a raised bed, 10 x 7, in which to plan some evergreens.  We have learned from evergreen casualties in the past that they do not like our wet clay, and now we are building them their own perfect bed to grow in. The main goal is to hide the neighbors ugly fence, and an evergreen tree should do that handily in all four seasons. A second goal is to build more winter interest, which for some reason I am absolutely fascinated with right now.

The front of the shed has extremely wet soil, it frequently is muddy there from water accumulation.  Evergreen shrubs would look great there, but we have learned our lesson with the damp soil and realize that is not likely.  I've been making a list of boggish plants that will grow well there, and - best news of all - most of them are already in my yard where I can move them for free.  Behind the shed is a little corner garden that will come out, and then we will rock around the tree and shrubs that remain.

For hardscaping, there will be a path to the back door of the shed, something level and sturdy and easy to walk on while carrying large awkward items like ladders and furniture. The old shed floor, a concrete slab, will be stained a cool color and turn into a patio with benches and firepit, surrounded by container plantings possibly. 

It will be wonderful when it's all done. Right now, it's all a tremendous amount of work, and looks pretty dismal. But if I close my eyes and squint, or better yet sit down with a sheet of paper and start drawing out the plan, I can just see how great it is going to be.