Backyard

Even though the patio isn't done, I am tired of waiting to show you what we've done so far to our back yard.  

Okay this is the only picture I could find that showed our out of control weeds last summer. Thank goodness Andy was taking pictures of his bike otherwise you might not believe me when I say they were really bad. The dogs loved it of course because it was like running through a forest, but the City wasn't all that thrilled. So if you can see past the bright orange motorcycle, you can see our before picture.

Spring, after raking, bagging and tilling the whole yard. Then we sprayed it with Round Up. Then we leveled the patio area. I wish you could see the hard work in the photos but you can't.

The stone and fill arrives!

Laying out the geotextile fabric.

After laying out all the stone so we could see each one.

There was no need to move these pieces, you can see them. By the way when you order 4 tons of flagstone, that means eventually you are going to lift 4 tons worth of stone with your arms.....no they don't make extra light flagstone. But I wish they did.

Resting after laying it all out....Not sure why Lincoln is yawning, he just supervised from his sleeping position on the ground.

The initial layout....before we took many of the pieces out and started again. Andy loved that part.

50% done laying it out. It is like a giant puzzle....except the pieces are 50-200lbs.

Slightly closer look at the puzzle.

Putting in the edging.

As we were putting in the metal edging it was thundering and lightening. Andy asked if we should be testing our luck. I told him I used to play outside during lightening storms all the time as a kid and I survived. He said I had terrible parents. About two seconds after we finished it started hailing.

 July, the second tilling/raking & picking up more rocks.

The last time it will look like this.

Ooo did I mention I found a glider and rocker on Craigslist? There they are. Andy is going to paint them red and white for me. But they are perfect.

Grass! Buffalo grass to be exact. Once it is established we can water once every 6 weeks, or less. 3 pallets ended up being more than we expected. It was supposed to be around 1000 square feet, but ended up covering the entire back yard, which I measured to be around 1300 square feet. Now we're watering like crazy and we still need to finish the patio, but this feels like a totally different back yard already.