Homer's Travels: Backyard Renovations

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Backyard Renovations

Some of you may have heard that we were having some work done in the backyard. I mentioned it here a few days ago. The landscaper finally showed up two days late. Bad weather the week before had delayed the start of our project. Bad/unpredictable weather seems to be the norm here in Nebraska. Spices up life a bit.

The work we had done was along the back fence. As you can see in the before picture (Click on the pictures to see bigger versions), the yard was rather bland. We had two trees a a small garden area being held together by rotting railroad ties and a prayer (That's Mary standing in the garden). What is not so apparent from this picture is the slope of the yard. There is a 4 1/2 foot drop from the top of the garden's back wall and the bottom of the back fence. This makes mowing along the back fence a real chore and the Wife and the GodSon (who house sat for us while we were on vacation) can attest to it. After mowing it a couple times, the Wife passed the backyard mowing chore to me. It's a real bear. Or, should I say, it was.

Backyard Before
The landscapers came in and over four days ripped out sod on the slope between the garden area and the evergreen tree on the right. They hauled in dirt to built up and flatten out the slope. Shrubs and short trees were planted along the back and the area was graveled. The garden area was enlarged and the railroad ties were replaced with a block wall.

Backyard After
The after photo shows the results. It came out pretty good. The five trees along the fence in the center are Purple Smoke Bushes. Don't ask me what the rest are. The Wife picked out most of it and she has told me several times but plant names don't stick in my head. She did a good job picking stuff out. If you want to know what it all is, leave a comment and I will ask the Wife. I do know there is a lilac in there somewhere (I think it's behind the evergreen). The garden was left unplanted and will be filled in by the Wife once she returns from the Emily Dickinson Workshop she's heading to next week. I think I'll plant something in the little area around the evergreen.

I can't wait to see how the plantings mature. The trees will grow and block the little street noise we get from the road out back. We have a lot of color from the different foliage. I also can't wait to mow the backyard now. It will be much easier, especially on those hot 100+ summer days.

Our landscapers did an good job but there were some issues as there are with all contractors. He was terrible with being anyplace on time. He wasn't good at communicating. He and his crew would leave each day without saying a thing to us. It's like, "Are they gone?!?" He was supposed to stop by yesterday for the balance of his payment and he never showed. Didn't even call. I guess I can't complain since we owe him and not the other way around.

2 comments:

  1. Damn, now I want to come over for the first BBQ...

    ReplyDelete
  2. GH: As always, you are always invited to drop by.

    ReplyDelete