Backyard Landscaping Is Complete - Almost

 

Looking back at last year when I began my big landscaping project I was plagued with rainy and unusually cold weather, much like this year.  With our long, long winter and very wet and rainy spring however, I did manage to get outside in between rainstorms and clean up the rest of the fallen leaves and all of the winter debris throughout my yard, prune the fruit trees and get them sprayed and finish up cleaning the collection of old firewood, scrap wood and other things that got pushed into the backyard as I was working my way from the curb at the street all the way back to the backyard fence line last year.  Much of what I got rid of ended up going on Facebook Marketplace as I’ve been endeavoring to downsize and streamline as much as I can with regard to my entire home, including the outside spaces.  It has been a process.

 

This space is just screaming for an overhaul

I was beyond ready to give it one

I knew going into this part of my big landscaping project that the raised garden beds would need to be replaced.  They had been originally constructed from recycled wood, old fence posts, and over the years, while they had served their purpose, they had rotted and it was definitely time to rebuild.  With the high prices on lumber, this time around I decided to go with something a little bit different so I purchased three galvanized steel raised garden bed kits.  Moving the dirt and tearing out the old beds was the hard part, the raised garden bed kits went together remarkably easy.

 

The new space with the smaller compost bin in place

Before I could even get started though I had to move my compost bin so I could fit the four by eight foot raised bed in place along the fence that separates my yard from the neighbors.  After deconstructing the compost bin I moved across the yard and rebuilt a smaller version of it.  I think the new and much smaller bin looks pretty nice nestled among the Virginia creeper and is the perfect size for me now.  I was able to reuse all of the wood and the screws from the old bin so this project cost me nothing but my time and energy.

 

Two of the new garden beds

My supervisor

I piled all of the soil and compost in the middle of each bed before tearing out the wooden structures.  The new beds were screwed together in sections and because they were larger than the old ones they fit around the mounded soil so my dirt shifting was kept as minimal as possible, but it was still a lot of digging.  With two of the garden beds in place I was able to smooth out the soil and then more digging.  I added all of the soil from the raised bed that used to be in the center of the garden area into the two new ones.

 

Lots of junk to deal with in the process

The new beds are a little bit larger so I needed more dirt

With that work complete and after a good cleanup of the garden area I was able to proceed with the third bed that sits along the edge of the lower deck.  The rainstorms moved in and progress came to a standstill for a while, but eventually the skies cleared and I was able to bet back to it.  With all three new beds in place I was ready to move on to the next step of bringing in more dirt.  These beds are larger than the original ones so I had to go and pick up some topsoil to finish filling them up.  I chose to buy the top soil in bags rather than bulk because it was much, much easier for me to move into the backyard since I do not own a wheelbarrow or a garden cart.  My neighbor lent me his hand truck and that was a godsend making moving those bags of soil super easy.

 

I'm thinking of using that stack of pavers along with some gravel in the area by the coop

My other supervisor

With the raised garden beds filled and complete I did a final cleanup of the area which included loading up all the old rotted wood and the last of the yard and garden debris that had accumulated.  I added the rusted out firepot to the mix as well as a few other things and it was off to the dump with a very full truckload of junk.  It felt amazing to heave all of that crap out of the bed of my pickup and knowing that pretty much all of would biodegrade over time made me feel fine about what I was contributing.

 

Ready to go to the dump!  Note my very full recycle bin in the background
I've been a very busy girl!

Welcome to my backyard 😁

The backyard is complete for the time being.  I do plan to acquire more gravel to fill in the area in front of the garden beds, but for now I’m ecstatically happy with how it has all turned out.  Neat, clean, and beautiful, just as I’ve always dreamed it could be some day.  At long last I have the backyard I’ve always dreamt of and I’m going to enjoy every square inch of it.  So will I plant a garden this year?  You better believe it, but that’s a story for another day.