Wednesday, January 2, 2013

I'm Tired of Mud

Our backyard is a muddy mess. Every time the dog goes outside she comes in with muddy feet, and we're tracking in mud too, so I avoid going into the backyard.

Last year, we managed to lay down a thick layer of mulch so it wasn't bad. But not this year, unfortunately, because the rain started in October and I hadn't thought about mulch in September. Geez, I was still in "summer" mode.
I took this picture looking out my sewing room window. There is a screen is on that window, so it obscured the view, but yup, look at all that dirt. (I'm trying to think of this as a blank slate.)

Even though I would really like to finish remodeling the master bathroom this year, I think we instead need to focus our energy on the backyard. I just can't do another year dealing with this mess.

I think we've got a good idea of what we want to do, but we don't have an actual landscape plan. I'm not sure whether it's worth investing in a landscape design, or whether we can just sort of wing it. I don't want to spend more money on paper, but I don't want to make Jeff crazy either as he tries to embark on the "plan."

As a reminder, among the projects planned are a side fence.
A pergola.
And a chicken coop (plus an enclosure).
Jeff would also like to put in a curving urbanite path from the back of the house down to the back of the yard plus a "paved" area beneath the pergola. Something along these lines:
Pasadena Open House Tour
Playful and permeable paving patterns
I'm hoping we can put together a more precise plan in the next couple of months so we can get started when the rains start to abate.

6 comments:

  1. Have you seen miuch crushed granite? A friend has it at his house, and it's wonderful. Doesn't track on your feet, so it stays put, but looks like sand. I've always thought it would work really well between stepping stones.

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    1. I haven't seen it. I'll have to look for it when we get ready to lay the paths.

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  2. It definitely helped me to have a landscape plan, especially for all the hardscaping. I would have never come up with the plan our designer did for us and I was really happy with it (although we didn't have to pay for it; we kind of traded favors, so that helped a LOT). Even if you do it yourselves, I recommend planning it out on paper in as much detail as you can (or do several different scenarios on paper and then walk around the yard and try to see how they feel).

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  3. That last brick and rock paver pattern looks like eyelashes. Fun and whimsical!

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  4. Hi, I'm not sure if you know, but I'm a fan of your blog, and I featured your blog on my "Best of The Web" top 12 favourite blogs!

    Check it out here:
    http://my1923foursquare.blogspot.ca/2013/01/best-of-web_11.html

    JC

    ReplyDelete