The Yard to Be and the Foxen

So we bought a house. And we moved. And since then we've been busy busy busy trying to make the house look presentable. I mean, the house is lovely, and we moved in and unpacked quickly and actually the inside is nothing to complain about. But the outside could use some... curb appeal?

This is what she looked like the day we bought her... not... awful. But not much of a yard to speak of. A crazy, lumpy, uneven, gravel-y lot full of weeds and chiggers! Oh the chiggers are bad.

See that gorgeous lush lawn? Try not to be jealous.

Even though it was 90% weeds and chiggers, we knew it would be a few weeks (or months) before we could get some real grass in this place, and in the mean time, we couldn't be overrun. Plus we also have a puppy we had to let out to go potty, who is terrified of anything teller than a cricket. (Scratch that-- he's scared of crickets too...) but the tall scary weeds were not doing it for him, and we were not really fans of him pottying in the house, duh.  So Z diligently mowed down the weeds twice a week.
We knew we had plenty of work ahead of us, but on top of our weed infestation and our chigger infestation, we also had these guys that liked to hang out in our yard...

Those are one, two, three little foxes that liked to play in our backyard every morning. Which would maybe be acceptable or expected if our house backed up to some woods, or acreage, but our lot backs up to someone else's fence? And there is an empty lot next door. However our house has been empty for 5 years, and these guys made it clear that this lot was THEIRS.

We actually found them quite entertaining and delightful at first. Every morning about 7:00 am they would be out frolicking, jumping, running, and playing in our yard. Right outside out windows, just a few feet from our back door! Sam especially enjoyed watching them in the mornings. But then I started to get a little nervous, becuase they didn't seem to be willing to give up their space. And when we saw this:

The little dudes jumping over a full size fence! I started to get nervous. I didn't know if they would ever act maliciously or territorially if we or our kiddo or our dog was outside, likely they would probably run and hide, but I wasn't sure. I didn't want to risk it. Especially knowing they could hop fences, I was a little concerned.
So I started researching wildlife rescue organizations around us to see if they could be relocated to a safer location for everyone. I didn't want to call animal control, because I didn't want the little guys to be captured and euthanized. It was unfortunate that our homes overlapped and we couldn't live comfortably together, but even still that wasn't their fault.
I was getting ready to make some phone calls, but we started seeing less and less of them. They didn't play in our yard in the mornings anymore, and we didn't even see them darting through the empty lots next to us anymore.
About a week later we brought in the machinery and graded and tilled our lot to prepare it for grass and landscaping and fencing. Now our house looks more like this:

 And it stayed like that for a couple weeks, and without a speck of vegetation around, I think the foxen (as I lovingly called them) decided to relocate themselves to a nicer neighborhood. We have seen no evidence of them around for more than a month now, so I feel confident they have vacated the premises and I like to believe they found a much nicer home, away from cars, people and other weird stuff that would disrupt their way of life. But they were our little buddies for a couple of weeks and that still makes me smile.

So here's the house in the naked lot just waiting and ready for some love. And if you are perceptive or know anything about fence building, you've noted the load in our driveway and can take a guess at what the first order of business will be...

Backyard Beautification: Part 3 (Growing up!)

I mentioned in part 1 that I would really love an herb garden. And our spacious lot is just the place to fill with acres of fragrant herbacious-ness. Right?
Maybe not.
I was going to have to get creative, because non-concreted areas are in short supply around us. Container garden it is. However, containers can take up their fair share of space as well, particularly if they are large and/or numerous which mine would have to be to house the herbs I wanted to grow. So I was stumped.
And then one day on the front page of Pinterest, I saw this:

Source: pinterestbest.net via Valerie on Pinterest

...and I said, EUREKA! We need to go vertical!
Why didn't I think of that sooner? And it was simple enough to make too... Iron rod, terra cotta pots that already have a hole in the bottom... this was so simple it was genius! So I got to work. I gathered my materials:

 and you can see in this picture I already have the metal rod in place (it's in the grass to the right of the table). My dad procured this for me (he's a machinist and has access to all kinds of wonders at his shop.) It is a very strong steel rod (probably stronger than it needs to be, really. My dad could tel you all about what type of metal it is and strength and all that... i just nodded, okay.) We guessed the size of the rod with a little trial and error. It goes down into the ground about 3 ft. I wanted to make sure this thing was nice and sturdy. My dad sharpened a point on one end so it would be easier to drive into the ground.

After pounding it into the ground, we stacked up the pots to make sure it was the right height-- didn't want it sticking out the top, but wanted all the pots secure. We had to take them off and pound it a few inches further into the ground. Here's what my naked pots look like:

I was worried about them being secure at their angle. So I dug a little hole under the corner of the bottom (largest) one to make it nice and stable even though it sits at an angle. The rest of them just rest on the upper edge of the one below, and once the soil is in it holds pretty secure.

So now I started with the bottom and filled the pots with soil then potted the plants as per the instructions on the side of each plant. And while I was doing all of this, Sam chilled in the kitchen, but kept an eye on me from his vantage point by the door.

It was pretty simple to put together. Herbs grow really well in containers, so this design for an herb garden worked well. And when it was all put together, it looked like this:

I planted (from bottom to top): Rosemary and oregano, thyme and chives, flat leaf parsley, basil, cilantro, and lavender. It fits well in that corner of our tiny yard, and it smells awesome too. Mmmm... herb-y goodness.
So we are slowly taking our sad, dead, smelly yard... and turning it into some place pretty, green, and fragrant (in a good way!).   It's becoming a place we would like to hang out and hopefully will be a place we can entertain. We still need to tackle some storage and some lighting, but we are well on our way.
Just in case you forgot... here's what it looked like last fall:

and here's what it looks like today... quite a difference.

We've got just a few more projects before our Backyard Beautification is complete... an exciting one this weekend! Can't wait to show you whats in the works! :)

Backyard Beautification: Part 1 (High on grass!)

I am not sure you can even call it a yard. It's more like... a small concrete patio with a strip of *grass around the outside. *Or what should be grass, but was not because it was all dead and tore up from the dogs.
This is a multi-part project that's been a long time coming. But lets just start it off with a picture of everything our backyard is, before I tell you everything I dream it could be...

This was our yard last fall. This picture was taken from inside the house, because it was the only way to get the entire immense space all in one picture. Note the luxiriously patchy brown 'lawn', the rickety grey fence about to fall over, and the dog poo on the concrete (ew, I totally posted a picture of poo on my blog. Things are getting a little too real here.) The smell was also pretty amazing. I mean two little dogs in that little space pooping on concrete and dead grass? Awesome.
The only pretty part of this picture is the grill. AH! I love that grill. But I was getting to the point where I hated using it, because it's in the smelly gross backyard. SIGH.
I wanted a pretty backyard. Green grass, a small herb garden, maybe some potted plants, a clothes line where our unmentionables could flutter in the wind, a fence that didn't threaten to topple over on me if I got too close on a breezy day. Oh, and lighting, so we can use our patio in the evenings. Must have lighting... er-- better lighting than the shady, crusty tiki torches we are currently using. Sigh. A girl can dream?
Unfortunately landscaping is not an instant gratification kind of thing and we spent a long (still pregnant!) afternoon outside raking and tearing out dead stuff, tilling and seeding our 'lawn' for a grand result of....

this:

 Ooooh... ahhhh...

I know, right? So much better! Or... not. Sigh.

But do you like how I put a red potted plant on the table to try and brighten things up a tiny bit? Much to my dismay, just a few days later the wind blew the pot off the table and it broke. Stupid wind. 

I was deflated. I know that landscaping is a slow, laborious process, but this was just disheartening to look at. At least it didn't smell anymore. And good things were coming in the near future.

Good things like... a new fence.

A NEW FENCE! 

Well, at least on 2 sides. Actually the only part of our fence that belongs to us is the very back portion. The right side is a neighbor, and the left side is a neighbor. The left side, though still ugly, is at least sturdy, where the right side was about to fall over. So when our neighbor saw us working in the yard that day, she mentioned she was going to be replacing her fence that weekend, and we kinda wanted to hop the fence and hug her! Then we immediately made plans to do the same the following weekend.

My Dad and Husband got to work and spent a saturday afternoon putting in the fence and doing the male bonding thing. :)

I don't have pictures of the fencing process... I didn't even take an 'after' shot. I must have been too pregnant and bitter that day, but that means you get to fast forward to a spring shot of a fence and a grown-in(ish) yard:

 Oooh... ahhhh... yard! Same little white dog too. So the grass is still patchy, but it's about 300 times better than it was, and we are working on that. The fence is sturdy, and ain't too shabby to look at either. My boys did a good job. 

We are well on our way to a more beautiful, functional backyard. Yay.