Yesterday I mentioned that I like to walk through my garden and spend some time in the backyard in the mornings. We’ve lived in our house for 18 years as of February, and our yard has gone through a lot of changes.
When we first moved in, the perimeter of the yard was lined with rose bushes, and Scotty wanted those taken out immediately. The yard had no shade, so it was always really hot back there, and we never wanted to go out there in the summer. It was also mostly weeds since the previous owners' dogs had worn out all the grass.
Over time, we planted some fruit and shade trees, laid sod, and poured a concrete patio. But it was still way too hot back there for several years while we waited for the trees to grow. We struggled to keep the lawn alive and we didn’t have a cover on the patio.
We made a garden, which we have since redone three times. First it was just a dirt patch. Then we changed to garden boxes. Then we added more garden boxes. And most recently, we moved all the garden boxes.
When Nicky was about 18 months old, we invested in a wooden play set.
Scotty built 85% of a shed (he’s never finished it, but it holds stuff just fine, and it was mostly free). We added chickens - first having their coop under the playhouse where the sandbox normally goes and then building them a bigger place when we got more.
We also had rabbits for a while. Their cage is gone, but Scotty built them a little play area that still remains - with a Spartan logo on the door because he used the scrap wood from Nicky’s Spartan Race themed birthday.
For a while we had a dog run because we were taking care of my mom’s dog while she was moving and having her yard fenced.
At one point we had an arbor with honeysuckle growing on it and a fence with grapevines. That’s all gone now. Our fruit trees gave us a few wonderful harvests, but then one by one, they all got diseases or bugs and died. So they’ve all been removed now.
We had a stone patio for a while, and then we removed it because we got another shed and had to put it in that spot.
We had raspberry bushes for several years, but they're gone now. I don't need any raspberries for now because I take care of Scotty's mom's raspberries, but I'd like to have them again someday.
I found an awning on clearance at Sam’s Club, so I bought it and we bolted it to our patio.
We had patio furniture, and then it got really worn out, so we got rid of it. Now we just use stackable Adirondack chairs and a picnic table we inherited from Scotty’s grandma.
Our shade trees are finally big enough to protect our yard from the sun. We felt like we would never have shade, but with time, it came!
A few years ago, we had curbing installed near the house and filled it in with rocks because we could never get grass to grow there. That eyesore is somewhat managed, but we still have several patches in our yard where we have repeatedly laid sod or grass seed to no avail.
Then last year when we moved all our garden boxes, we had some curbing put around it.
We wanted to plant sod where the garden used to be, but then we found ourselves in a drought, so we decided to wait. We’re still in a drought, so this year, as a temporary fix, we put some bark down where we were originally hoping to put grass. My mom was redoing her landscaping from bark to rock, so we took the bark.
When Nicky was an infant, I bought a sand turtle from the thrift store for $10. It's still out in the yard today - drifting from place to place. We've used it as a sandbox and a swimming pool, but mostly we use it for holding dirt, rocks, or bark while we move it from place to place.
We also have a pond form we use for everything but a pond.
No comments:
Post a Comment