Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Next Up? Operation Back Yard!

After the dining room wallpaper/paint project, were hoped to move to the yard, building a retaining wall, installing french drains, etc. Unfortunately, the City's sewer plans will interfere with retaining wall construction (that's a long story), so we're going to shift the scope of this phase of the yard project. This phase will include new back patio, concrete removal/repair in driveway & sidewalks. That's still plenty of work!

We're going to remove most of the existing landscaping (including a 3-4 year old lilac, 2 year old ornamental plum, a holly, invasive butterfly bush, diseased but beautiful roses, lillies, tulips, etc, etc. We'll keep the fig, and work towards a clean slate of fescue, with a mulch boarder and two raised beds to garden in. I'm also hoping to add some shrubs in the front with red or purple foliage.

Do you all have any great ideas, or valuable lessons-learned about such projects? Your experience and feedback is invaluable! Please feel free to post a comment or email us NEPdxBungalow (at) gmail.com!

Here's a glimpse at what we've got:

The yard when we moved in, July 2008:


Loved the flowers, but I just couldn't take it anymore:


We prune the fig tree several times a year, but it refuses to be discouraged:

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