Creating the backyard of your dreams

Let's talk gardens.

I LOVE my garden. It's by far my favorite part of our house / yard, but it hasn't been quick.

When we first bought our house, the backyard had been over-run by dogs and weeds. Our yard was also almost a foot lower than both of our neighbors, and as such we had a LOT of flooding issues during spring thaw.

First step was to raise the yard to be level with the properties on either side of us. With my work, I do a lot of grading planning, so we were able to utilize that to ensure that we could minimize water runoff issues.

I cannot stress this enough. 

When re-designing an outdoor space. 

HAVE A PLAN.

• Understand where you want water to go.
• How the sun moves across the yard
• Can your neighbors see you? Do you want them to?
• Common travel paths
• If you have pets, where you want them to do their business
• Do you want a garden?
• Do you want to plant flowers every year? Or would you rather lower maintenance perennials?
• Do you have trees?
• Do you want trees?
• Do you have above / underground power or utility lines to contend with?
• Do you enjoy having people over in your backyard?

I started off not having a plan. And it's lead to a lot of rework, 2 years of rework to be exact.

But now, it's finally coming together and I cannot wait to have backyard parties again!

In the above image you can see a high level view of what's been done. I really fell in love with the idea of a dry creek bed running through the whole garden (read, gravel path) and this year extended it along the north fence from the raised bed to the compost to cut down on weeding. I've still been able to plant along this area by utilizing large pots (and my tomatoes are loving it!) 

The east part of the yard is full of wildflowers, more so to create a buffer between the alley and the garden, but also to entice the bees to visit more often! It's a good blend of perennial growth and annual seeding that has just gotten better as the years go on.

My tea garden is something that I've wanted for quite some time. Currently it's full of chamomile that self seeds every year, so staying on top of picking it has been key to it not taking over the whole garden.

Are you looking for more discussions surrounding your garden plan? email: littlebirdenterprises@gmail.com for estimates and pricing.