BACKYARD GARDEN MAKEOVER

I’ve been meaning to share these photos for a few weeks now but got busy (hmmm, wonder why?) but I’m getting around to it now! For Christmas, Kyle’s (amazing) parents gave us the gift of a new backyard. They paid for someone to come in and dig up the old, lumpy, rocky lawn, amend the soil, and bring in sod! We also built raised beds, are in the process of relocating the patio we put in two years ago, etc. It’s been a huge project that has mostly been undertaken by Kyle since I was pregnant and now am on baby duty and have an injured foot. Kyle’s done an amazing job. Here are some before photos and some progress photos!

Our backyard spent most of the spring looking like this! The black plastic was covering the soil that Kyle had tilled and added compost to in anticipation of raised beds. The mulch against the house was covering about one hundred heads of garlic that we had planted.

PINPINTwo years ago we put in the patio, but this year we realized it was a little too small and if we put our grill on it the smoke would go right into our bedroom and our neighbors bedroom! So, we decided to move it and put the raised beds where the patio had been.

PINOur original lawn was so lumpy and rough with lots of rocks, dips, and bare spots.the first step was to tear up the old lawn, remove the rocks, amend the soil, put in irrigation, and then sod. While the workers were tearing up the lawn, Kyle built beautiful raised beds. Then they left him a couple of weeks to do the irrigation, which his Dad helped him with, then the workers came back and laid the sod. While the guys were trenching and irrigating, Kyle’s mom and I planted the veggies in the raised beds.

The sod was in and the beds were planted when Lulu arrived, so we were able to relax and water the backyard for a couple of weeks. The garden has grown so quickly over the past two months. We’ve eaten so much kale, greens, zuchinni, cucumber, radishes and garlic from the backyard. Our tomatoes are starting to ripen and our beans are growing!

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In the last couple of weeks Kyle has framed the patio, brought the sand in and is starting to lay the pavers back down. Finishing the patio is our next project, then laying weedmat, building pathways, bringing in gravel… it’s all really coming together!