Garden Steps

Last year about this time we started working on the wooded path from the English Garden down to the new yard.  Mama put in a few steps at the bottom next to the gate.  Well, we’ve finally returned to that project a year later and put in the rest of the steps!

I forgot to take progress pics, but here are the completed steps leading to the garden!

After Mama and I finished laying the steps, we added a row of liriope down one side.  We still have to finish the border, and we also want to add more plants along the path later on. 

It’s certainly a more pleasant and picturesque walk down through the woods now with the addition of our steps! :)

Since we are already down here, let’s have a look around the English Garden, shall we?

Everything is looking nice!  I’ll be back soon with updates from the garden!

Happy Summer!

English Garden Patio Update

I have all these little areas in my yard that have their own particular names.  We have the patio, the fairy cove, the cutest flower bed, mailbox bed, front beds, back beds, fence bed… lots of beds.  Well today we are going to talk about the English Garden brick patio.  You know, the one formerly known as the swing patio?  Well, since the swing is no more, I’ve taken to calling this the brick patio.  It’s not even big enough to be considered a patio, really, but what are you gonna do? 

Anyway, back in April when we mulched the English garden, my Mama and I decided to level the brick patio.  Little did I know that this reveal would be so delayed.  I promised to show it to you when the swing was hung back up… well that didn’t happen. :)  Ooops!

Now that we have had a chance to landscape behind the patio as planned, I am back to show you the whole before and after scenario!  Here we go!

First things first, we took up all the bricks.  They are actually brick pavers with no holes in them and they are way cool.  They must be old or reclaimed pavers because they are irregular in shape and size, plus they have neat-o moss growing on them, so we were careful not to disturb it too much while we were rearranging them.  After clearing the space, we raked it all level.  It is mostly sand down here from the original installation so that part was easy.  Then we pulled a string to create a straight line for ourselves to work from. 

Then we proceeded to put all the pavers back evenly spaced in the same layout that they were before.  Because I liked it that way. :)

I find it is helpful to employ your puppy-dog digger, too, if you need any digging done.  Riley is a great digger and she has to be laying right where you are working so she can supervise effectively. :)

She is checking out our handiwork after all the pavers are down.

All finished.  Now it needs rock dust to fill in all the cracks.

We just dumped the rock dust on top and swept it into the cracks with a broom.  Then after a couple of good rains, I swept off the top of the bricks.  It also helps that the yellow bushes in back leafed out and we planted two rhododendrons on the right.

Now, for the landscaping!

We added a continuing row of liriope in a sort of curving design behind the patio and three more hostas to fill in the space. 

And now for that before and after comparison.  Before (from 2011) where you can see the patio caving off to the right:

And After, now it is all level and surrounded by beautiful plants!  I am a little ashamed that this seemingly simple project has taken me so long to check off my list.  But at last, it is done!

Now I just need a garden bench (like this one) to make this space useful! :)  I do have a little something else planned for the English Garden this Summer.  But, it’s been rainy so I haven’t had a chance to spray paint it yet. :)  Stay tuned!

Hello Rhododendron

When we said goodbye to our garden swing last weekend we were left with a couple of gaping holes and a wall falling away into the woods.  We didn’t waste any time whipping this area back into shape!

We filled up the holes and leveled the patio (again).  Then Mama and I used the posts leftover from the swing and rebuilt a section of the retaining wall that had caved off next to the old swing.  We backfilled that with some more dirt and covered everything over with mulch.  Then came time for planting!

We decided to get two rhododendrons since they do well in shade as well as a few more azaleas since they were on sale! :)  Here’s what the swing side looks like now:

You can see the new wall behind the pink rhododendrons.  Eventually they will get really tall and fill in the gap between the garden and the woods.  They’ll also screen some of the mess back there, too. :)

We also added another pink azalea by the stairs and two more on the swing side along the edge.

Here’s a look at the rest of the garden in its prime blooming season:

We are still trying to decide what to put on the actual brick patio… maybe a little bistro set? Firepit?  Or another garden bench?  I’ll keep you posted!  We’re also going to continue the liriope border around behind the patio and fill in with some more hostas, too!

Last and best… the before and after comparison!

Goodbye swing, hello rhododendron!

Goodbye Garden Swing

This past weekend I had my father and brother down to help me with a couple of projects in the yard.  The first project was our garden swing in the English garden. 

The swing has been conspicuously absent in photos for a while… that’s because I was going to repaint it since the paint was peeling.  :(  But then I thought I would replace it with kid swings since my nieces would love that!  But we had noticed that the standards of the swing frame were leaning towards the woods and also the whole thing rocked when you swung on it.  Not good.  So, we decided to tear down the “swing set” and replace it.  Papa and John came to do the demo work since it was too big for me to deal with.  (Thanks guys!)

I did the prep work before they arrived and dug out around the posts so we could see what we were dealing with.

They were rotted almost in two.  There wasn’t a lot of wood left  in the ground to hold up the swing.  :(  When the boys (I mean men) arrived they made swift work of dismantling the swing set.  And they saved every piece of lumber and every fastener.  Thrifty.

This is all that remained of the first post when it broke off at the base.

And the second one shredded, too.  Good bye rickety old swing set.

Once it was down, I noticed how open everything looked.  So, in an effort to save time and money rebuilding a swing set that we hardly used, we decided to do away with the swing and not replace it.  No more swing.  Sorry nieces! 

I am really enjoying the new view.  And we didn’t stop there!  Once the swing was gone there was a whole new garden space that needed filling.  So we spent the rest of the weekend cleaning up the brick patio and planting some new shrubs…  I’ll be back later this week to fill you in on those details! :) 

Meanwhile, can we discuss how lovely my grass is?  Just lovely.  I am reseeding the area in front of the steps and when that comes in I will do a full reveal on the backyard grass project. :)  Yay Spring!

I have several more Spring projects under my sleeve that I will be posting about soon including an update on the paver patio, backyard flower bed progress, and a follow-up in the English garden!   Stay tuned!