Or maybe not so great. Our backyard has been sorely
neglected. We have focused on the inside so much these past few years that the
outside has definitely taken a backseat.
We have started to turn our attention to creating a backyard oasis
but it is going to take some time and a lot of planning. Right now we are just concentrating on
creating a blank slate as we try to figure out what we actually want to do back
there. This is what our backyard looked
like when we moved in.
Not bad. Decent enough landscaping, huge built in pool,
patio. Definitely livable.
Here is what it looked like last week.
Pool gone. Landscaping out of control. Grass needs some serious help. OK, we kind of ruined it and yes, we filled in the pool. Here’s the thing. Pools are great for parties and great for other people to come over and enjoy. Not so great to have to clean and take care of, especially when it was used maybe 4-5 times each summer. This pool was old, like 35+ years old. It was starting to deteriorate and we either had to put money in to keep it or to take it out. In the end taking it out was the best decision for us. Even though it probably cost more up front than making the repairs, in the long run it will save us money. Plus it gives us much more space to play around with. This was done at the end of last summer. Now that the ground has settled (literally) we are starting to plan what we want to do. First on the list was cleaning up the out of control landscape. We are really not fans of hedges so our first instinct was to just rip everything out. However, they do provide needed privacy from neighbors so we decided to take some out but leave a few until we really have a concrete plan in place of what will replace them. We want to be able to use our yard this summer so the goal at this point was just to get it looking presentable. We had a company come over and take down a tree as well as a few hedges and do a major cleanup of the ones we decided to keep for now. This was definitely money well spent. It would have taken days for us to do this ourselves. Here is what our yard currently looks like from the same angles as above.
Granted, this is not an immediate improvement and we may not have thought this completely through because we now have a huge gaping hole to our neighbor’s yard where a tree used to be. We didn’t really anticipate the empty space this was going to leave. Whoops.
We may look into planting something else there or possibly putting in a new fence.
Pool gone. Landscaping out of control. Grass needs some serious help. OK, we kind of ruined it and yes, we filled in the pool. Here’s the thing. Pools are great for parties and great for other people to come over and enjoy. Not so great to have to clean and take care of, especially when it was used maybe 4-5 times each summer. This pool was old, like 35+ years old. It was starting to deteriorate and we either had to put money in to keep it or to take it out. In the end taking it out was the best decision for us. Even though it probably cost more up front than making the repairs, in the long run it will save us money. Plus it gives us much more space to play around with. This was done at the end of last summer. Now that the ground has settled (literally) we are starting to plan what we want to do. First on the list was cleaning up the out of control landscape. We are really not fans of hedges so our first instinct was to just rip everything out. However, they do provide needed privacy from neighbors so we decided to take some out but leave a few until we really have a concrete plan in place of what will replace them. We want to be able to use our yard this summer so the goal at this point was just to get it looking presentable. We had a company come over and take down a tree as well as a few hedges and do a major cleanup of the ones we decided to keep for now. This was definitely money well spent. It would have taken days for us to do this ourselves. Here is what our yard currently looks like from the same angles as above.
Granted, this is not an immediate improvement and we may not have thought this completely through because we now have a huge gaping hole to our neighbor’s yard where a tree used to be. We didn’t really anticipate the empty space this was going to leave. Whoops.
We may look into planting something else there or possibly putting in a new fence.
Greg and I definitely have some different visions for the
backyard so this renovation is going to be a compromise. Here are a few images I have collected.
I love the idea of creating a patio right outside our sliding doors with a pergola overhead.
image from here
image from here
image from here
image from here
I envision the landscaping to be very organic in feel- I don't want it to feel too contrived. We will need to build it up over time to create lots of layers and textures.
image from here
So that is where we are at right now. Really just at the beginning stages. Next on this list is to clean up our patio area so that we can use it for the summer. After that I hope to start getting some more plants and trees and figure out what we are doing about that huge hole. Luckily those neighbors seem to like us. For now.
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