Landscaping the Backyard
Most of these photos were taken in August and September 2006, but much of the work began long before. In the early months of the summer, we cut out a decent sized portion of the lawn and created the curving edges. Then Eric dug trenches along the west and north sides that empty into larger catchments. The sod cuttings and diggings created the base of small berms behind the trenches.
Eric swinging a pick axe at the clay-heavy soil, just about finished with the trenches.
We lined the trenches and catchments with water-pervious landscape sheeting designed to keep dirt particles from filtering in. Then we laid perforated landscape pipe along the trenches. In this photo, Eric is driving a spike into the plastic pipe to keep it fixed in place.
After we fixed the pipe, then we lined the trenches with drain rock, some of it culled from our previous digging projects.
A closer view of the drainage trenches.
Seeking shade beneath the rose bushes, George is extremely helpful.
The drainage trenches are designed to carry water to two large catchments, which we lined with sheeting and then filled with rubble and rocks, which provide stability but retain plenty of open areas to hold water. The idea is to move "Lake Ballard"--the pools of standing water in our backyard that emerged in the Winter of 2005/6--toward the back corners of the yard.
Jill seals up the larger of the two catchments.
All sealed up now. Then we raked dirt back over the top.
Here's Eric showing off all that work -- it looks like we've accomplished absolutely nothing.
George helped out a great deal.
Our yard must already have become wildlife-friendly because our deck was were soon visited by this possum (seen eating the food we leave out for the neighborhood three-legged cat).
What better way to install 10 cubic yards of topsoil than to have someone else do it for you? Eric returns home from work to find it done -- blown in using an engine and a big blower hose.
The compost-rich topsoil was a big improvement on the poor soil we had, but it was a wee bit smelly. Sorry neighbors!
Finally, the big payoff day that we'd long been waiting for: fall planting!
Almost done with planting, Jill puts a few more bulbs in the ground.
The very next day, Eric and his brother Brian hauled in 3 cubic yards of bark mulch to finish off the project.
Brian takes a break from spreading the mulch.
The west side of the backyard, showing some of our new plantings: the Chinese kousa dogwood (front and center), a couple of hydrangeas, a viburnum, a Mount Everest, and a shore pine (last year's living Christmas tree -- it's on the right). Also some dwarf calla lily bulbs on the left.
From left to right, our new plantings: the shore pine, a vine maples, an azalea (partially hidden behind the bird feeder), another vine maple, a hydrangea, some bulbs in the fore, and an oak sapling (barely visible on the right).
The leaves of our new Japanese maple in the foreground -- it sits beside the patio. Behind it, one of the vine maples (left) and our apple tree (right), which we inherited from the previous owners.
Another view of the northeast corner of the yard. Our lovely rose box on the right, the apple tree, oak sapling, and vine maple along the north side of the yard.
In addition we planted a cranberry bush, a cotoneaster, and we re-potted an arbor vitae for a screen.
More to come next spring, but we're taking a break for now.
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