Somewhat Unseasonal Update: Back Yard!

Guess who almost forgot to give an update on the “after” for our back yard? I hope you cut us a little slack as we have a new baby, so we are sleep deprived and busy as heck:)

As I mentioned in the before, we had more than aesthetic problems with our back yard and it needed attention right away to prevent additional damage. Over the past 16 years, I can’t tell you how many homes I've seen that have had drainage problems that, when left unfixed, cause very expensive damage! To fix ours, we got creative with a rain garden.

The rain garden was built in a low spot in the yard, and it is a shallow pond of sorts, and it captures the water from the roof gutters and the groundwater draining the water to nourish water-loving plants. The plants have deep roots that love lots of water, and we have seen a huge difference with the amount of water pooling at the base of the family room exterior wall. It took a little time, trial and error, and replacing the plants and rocks to really get it right, and now that it is done we've seen a BIG difference!

The work didn’t stop there! We removed a dead tree, and reseeded the yard. Suzanne went to town on the hastas, digging-up what seemed to be a hundred of them. Yes, she actually broke our red shovel! Gotta say, “hasta" has turned into a curse word at our house.

There were homemade cement blocks that needed to be removed, and after all is said and done, I will let the pics speak for themselves. The boys loved it back there all year, and we are thankful to have such friendly neighbors and thankful we didn't do a privacy fence; this is so much happier!

We have a lot of work to do back there, but it sure helped to clean the slate with some foundational work. So, tell me: What are you planning on for spring 2017 in YOUR yard?