No cards! landscaping the yard pictures

This is what I have been up to for the last several months!

Along the side of our garage we just left junk...you know like old hanging baskets, rocks, even found a bag of cement that was hardened, some irrigation pipes bags of soil, etc.

It was time to clean it up and make it look nice. 

So we hauled away the junk, laid down stone that we already had to keep the 1/4 minus gravel contained for a pathway.  

I had an idea that making a trellis to go along that side wall would be attractive once a clematis is growing up and blooming!  so we made a total of 4 trellis' and on this side we planted evergreen clematis that will bloom pink next year.

We got the the trellis's cemented in and secured to the walls after pressure washing and painting them black.  We also planted three ever blooming pink azaleas

 

On the back of the garage wall we put in two more trellis and planted honeysuckle along with some shrubs.

Our 2 1/2 acres is on a dead end street and this is the corner.  the rocks have been there for a number of years, but only weeds were growing. I decided this was the summer to clean it up and get it planted.

Our house sits up a little incline from the road, and as you can see we have a generator and a heat pump as well as electrical panels.  I thought it would look better for neighbors to see a short fence than all our equipment.  So we built a 3 foot high fence and from the road you cannot see any of the equipment except the electrical panel that is higher on the wall.

Perfect solution, except when I look out my craft room, I cannot see any of our new grass or any plants we will be planting next spring!  Great view for the neighbors and walkers though!

My daughter and grandson helped my husband lay about 2000 sq. ft of sod!

 In the meantime, I had asked my grandson to help me clean out our water pond in our back yard.  The one cattail plant we had placed in the pond took over everywhere!  My grandson had to take a saw to cut through 4 inches of roots along the floor of the pond to get it out.  And it had about 4 inches of stinky muck in the bottom.

My job was to put on boots and get in there to retrieve the salamanders and snails before we pumped out all the water.

After pressure washing and getting it cleaned out, we put in new water lilies and a couple of other plants.  You can bet I am keeping my eye on those to be sure they don't get out of hand!

 

While we were at it we took a out a very overgrown crocosmia and if my daughter was not there to help me I never would have been able to dig it out myself.  It was massive and the roots were so thick we again had to use a sawsall to cut through the roots.  This is the finished product, all cleaned up and not so cluttered with over grown plants.  I guess I like my yard like my cards:  CAS!!  ha ha

the building you see in the left background is actually a gym...full size basketball/volleyball court.  It paid off as Ellie received a full ride scholarship for volleyball!  And her sophomore brother is earning some acknowledgment with his basketball skills.  the gym is actually in their back yard!  They are our neighbors!

 

 This grass is wonderful, but the prep was hard work.  We had to haul in about 5 loads of dirt.  Some of it we got for free, some we had to buy the top soil and it seemed the more we raked the more rocks were there.  I can't even tell you how many piles of rock and debris I made and then we had to haul it away.  And I was usually on the end of the shovel while DH was sitting on the tractor!

 Now we are testing out the irrigation and it is looking good.  

 

 

Then I started praying for rain because I wanted to be DONE.

I got my wish and now I can play in my craft room until next spring.  

Not only do we have to put in some plants for interest and color,

we have one more unfinished part of our backyard that will require a little wall and a sidewalk.

I am hoping my DH can get someone else to help with that!

And now to end with a picture or two of my sweet Jackson who is now 18 months old!

I can't even believe it!

I watch him two mornings a week for a couple of hours and we have to go down to the gym and play ball...that is his one and only word and his favorite word.  ball...ball...ball...

in fact when they went to the pumpkin patch he was running around yelling  ball..ball...ball and trying to pick everyone up...turning red in the face with some of them!! LOL

ME,  Dina (mommy)  Jackson, Lacey

We went to Cannon beach for the day (about 1 1/2 hour drive) and had a blast!  His first trip to the beach and he loved the water and the sand...had so much fun!

He even LOVED being covered up with sand!

Okay I have kept you long enough !

Thanks for looking and I am glad this project is behind me and I don't really want to do another one quite like this!

 

 

 

Heart Hugs, friends!