Back "Yard"

The back "yard" is really just a 5' wide strip behind the house, between some fences. My mother had a pretty good idea to change it from bark chips to something more appealing. So I dug right in, literally. I bought a rake with which to clear out the bark chips which were old, moldy, and generally just gross. After day of work I had nine 30 gallon trash bags filled with the stuff. Next came the digging, so I bought a shovel and turned over the dirt. This was to serve two purposes. First, I needed to get all of the rocks and root balls that had been left there after who knows how many years. Second, I needed to uncovered the sprinklers which were a few inches deep now.

With all of the dirt tilled and leveled, I replaced the sprinkler heads with efficient rotary sprinklers and prepared for my parents arrival. They're the type of people that want a project when they visit. So, when they visited we went to the quarry, picked out some flag stone, and laid it down. Next, we planted creeping thyme in the crevices, and then came the waiting. A year later...

 

The back yard is on the North side of the house, so the thyme doesn't bloom, but it does grow. In fact in order for me to walk on the stones I had to take some scissors and reveal them after the summer. The little trellises have chocolate vines (Akebia quinata) which are alive...barely. Again, this is an issue of sunlight. I do plan on hiding the water supply and control valves at some point. I just haven't decided how.