I can't remember if I posted it here yesterday but I got bored and antsy yesterday (yay, "its getting warm so suki is in manic do all the projects mode" season) so I finally finished replacing the edging on the front bed and then got the grading dug and drainage stuff done so we could put down the pavers for the trash can parking area.
During (forgot to take a before, oh well!)
After
Hubby asked me to even out the dirt that had been removed from that area so I decided that since he's at work and the kids are at gmas (yay spring break) I'd go ahead and do that today. In my typical style, I decided that I'm building a raised bed in front of the bay window to grow kitchen herbs in (Bay window is in the kitchen and this way I can just reach out and grab what I need while cooking) so I pulled out my measuring tape and my trusty graph paper, cranked out a scale drawing, and went to the hardware store for 7 8x8x16 standard cinderblocks. I figured the base will be mostly buried anyways so no reason to spend extra for two more layers of pretty blocks for the first 8". Which leaves me here. Dug out an even area for the blocks and got them down, then backfilled that with some of yesterday's displaced dirt lol. I'd say 50/50 odds hubby spots it in the dark when he pulls up lmfao.
Here's the rest of the "yard," the neighbors currently mow the ugly grass patch even though half of it is ours and they will be moving this summer so I've decided I'm going to trench out and grade drainage down the side of the driveway, do another 2x2 square of pavers to make a corner for the trashcans, and then do another raised bed on our half for the entire length. Idk what I'll grow in it yet but it'll definitely be something more useful than grass. That will get done after the backyard or else hubby will definitely be rather displeased with me (note the pavers still on the driveway from nearly a year ago, those are going out back. The red ones are what I took out when I put the stone ones in).
I will eventually get my way and get rid of that raggedy camelia lmao. Below is mapping of what is there currently from when I ripped out all the bushes last year and replaced them with fruit. Red is all strawberries, they spread like crazy so I'm happy considering I started with just a little 2x3 area when I planted them. Dark green in the lower right is raspberries, blue is dwarf blueberries and blackberries. Purple circle is the dwarf cherry tree that I hated picking all the blossoms off of today but it had to be done. Lime green is the herb garden area, you can see the block foundation. I'll be using 12x8x4 pretty retaining wall blocks of the same style as the edging to build it up the rest of the way. The two Xs I think will have watermelon plants, tbh I hadn't planned that area last year but I think they'll do well there.
That entire area was dead dried out hard pack dirt last year when I pulled the bushes out, so I double dug it all and added fresh garden soil, compost & manure, and perlite which was a metric crapton of work and was probably why I ran out of steam before I could finish it all. Thankfully all of the hard part is done now, just a matter of stacking the stones and filling the raised bed so I should be able to crank that out in a day. Like I said, the other new bed project will wait till after we do the back lol. Old lady neighbor mentioned today that we are supposed to be maintaining the easement behind our fence so that's being added to the todo list for the backyard.
Which puts the backyard todo list at:
Laying the new pavers (no digging for that since they're going over slab, yay!)
Removing the rest of the stupid bushes blegh
Grading the yard area to fix the drainage back there
Paving a path to the fence and across the length of the easement
Building the raised beds and double digging the rest of the easement to most likely plant corn/squash/beans back there
Filling the "lawn" area with pea gravel
Oh, and hubby mentioned that we need to fix/replace the fence
so I suppose we can add that to the list as well.
Granted, the yard in its entirety is only about 18x23ish including the slab patio so not a super huge space, but still quite a lot of work to be done, especially considering I'm disabled and hubby works 6 days a week
but once that's all done I can grade the landing strip (it mounds up in the center and slopes towards the driveways so gotta flatten that out), build up the raised bed in the front, and get plants going out there as well. Most likely carrots/lettuce/spinach/etc that won't get too tall and wild looking lol.
Also still have to mull over how to approach my super hots this year, they definitely will go in bigger pots this time, thinking of doing Rubbermaid SIPs and just putting them along the perimeter of the balcony and then using the center space for my canna plants lol. They made pretty good cover last year. May do a few plants in the raised beds in the backyard so long as I can make it so the dogs can't get to them cause they will absolutely mess with them if they're accessible.
. The last sale they had sitewide was off everything but these so i wasn't waiting any longer.
