Backyard Makeover 2022

We had a vision for our backyard, and it was to feel like we were in a woodland garden at all points in the yard.  This meant that rather than have separate gardens around the yard, we wanted a continuously flowing landscape, where the observer was always IN the garden, not just beside a garden.  The photos below show the transformation of our small urban yard from end of March 2022 to beginning of September 2022.

The first thing we knew we had to address was the sad patch of hard scrabble grass.  Due to the dappled shade of the locust, the grass was really struggling and had equal amounts bare soil and spindly grass.  We decided that we would eliminate all of the grass and change that entire part of the yard to plantings.  As you know, the garden is very hosta-forward, but there are some other gems tucked in here and there as companion plants (see previous posts).

For hardscaping, we used a combination of river stone and eucalyptus log edging (link).  We also reclaimed some driftwood for accents from the beaches around us and finally topped everything off with a large amount of natural cedar mulch.

One struggle we encountered was the quality of the soil.  When the house was built, they must have used the backyard to store the fill excavated from the house, as nearly every shovel full uncovers dozens of small to medium rock pebbles.  On top of the already sandy condition of the soil, this is a challenge for water retention.  We water deeply twice a week and it seems to be ok.  Hopefully, as the plants mature, their need for deep watering will subside a bit.  Another tip to help this situation is the application of a good amount of composted sheep/cow manure.  One of the pieces of garden wisdom that I try to apply is 'dig a million dollar hole'.  For me this means a nice wide deep hole amended with heaps of composted manure.  I hope the plants respond accordingly :)

Another change this summer (we did so much!) was that we painted the former outdoor kitchen and made it our seating area.  We have spent countless hours under the pergola this summer listening to music, baseball and each other.

One of my favorite vignettes in the yard is our firepit seating area.  All of these Adirondack (US) / Muskoka (CAN) chairs were either free or less than 25$ each.  There was a whole production of disassembling, repairing, re-assembling and painting on our large, drop cloth covered dining room table early in the spring.

The firepit itself was constructed by re-purposing the small retaining wall that previously existed to the right of the current firepit.  Finally, we re-laid the flagstones that were previously existing into a different pattern.

Again, the aim for the feel is being amongst the garden from all vantage points.  I think we nailed it here.

This part of the yard then presented a new challenge as we spent our first summer in the house.  You see, around 6pm, the sun STREAMS over the back fence and stays that way until sunset.  We kept an eye open for solutions, then finally settled on a shade sail from FB Marketplace.  For 40$ we had our solution.

This is the area affectionately known as the office garden, as it is my view from my home office window.  It's ok the way it is now, but it can be better.  I am still in the beta phase for this space.  

One idea is to create a unique water feature in the middle (previously occupied by a small Japanese Maple that wasn't cutting it).

I am also really disappointed in the clematis that we planted there in the summer.  It really never did anything.  I will give it until next year to figure out what it's going to do.

This was also the same spot where we had the large (30ft+) dead weeping beech removed, so I need to be mindful of any remaining root structure.

Stay tuned to this space for future improvements!

Another previously struggling piece of ground was here, between the garden shed and garage.  Here again, struggling grass was patchy and threadbare.  It was removed and replaced with plantings.  One of my underdogs here is a small Japanese Maple (just north of center in the picture on the right).  This is a Tsuma Gaki variety and should mature into a really nice small sized maple to fill in this corner of the path.  A picture of a mature one is shown below.

We had an idea to fill the gap between the shed and the garage (north of the trellis in the picture on the right) with Osterich Ferns, but only two of the five planted survived.  Again, waiting until next year to see if they are resurrected, but I think ferns are the way to go here as it is very deep shade back there.

We also extended the downspout from the back corner of the garage since it was 1) plugged solid and 2) running right back against the foundation of the garage.  Hopefully in time the plants will mature and cover most of the downspout extension.

Thanks for taking the time to journey with us through our garden changes in the backyard.  We did a lot in the front yard too!

Gardens are always in flux and ours is no different, stay tuned for further developments.

Listening to:  'God's Favorite Customer' by Father John Misty