The cozy cottage is very much in need of a backyard do over and we’re finally doing it. That photo above may not be pretty but it is progress. And getting here included years of arguments, giving up on weeding, and two bouts of poison ivy. The reason for the do over is simple: I want the backyard to work more for our family and also be less of a literal thorn in the side.

When we first looked at the house and saw the backyard, I was really disappointed. It was a sliver of grass, a whole lot of garden, and even more driveway and garage.

It came alive beautifully in spring and so we did our best over the years to create a hangout space on a budget that would allow us to use the space better. A couple of posts to jog your memory here and here.

But honestly, I’d had it with two major components of the yard: weeding the garden area, in particular those dang rose bushes, and anything to do with the hedge that ran almost the entire length of our property.

I hate weeding. Like, so much. And keeping up a garden requires a lot of weeding. And it’s really hard to weed a large section of rose bushes. Yes, the garden is really pretty when everything is in bloom, but that pretty doesn’t sustain me when I’m weeding or looking at all the weeding I have to do.

I let the garden turn into a jungle last summer when I was first pregnant and it was really hot and humid and I felt as if I was covered in mosquitoes. I just didn’t want to do it. But then this spring I decided to put some effort into it when I was on maternity leave and I started to feel slightly better about it. Until I didn’t. (See here for reference.)

And the more I thought about it, the more I hated the garden. I have been wanting to get rid of the rose bushes for years because I wanted more playable space for the dog and now I definitely wanted it gone because I envisioned a 1 1/2 year old running and falling around the backyard next summer and me constantly having to prevent him from stumbling into thorns. So. Many. Thorns.

So that was it, I’d made up my mind, the rose bushes would be gone. But Daniel did not agree. Sigh.

And then poison ivy came into our lives. Two years ago, while Daniel was pulling vines from around the garage, he got some really nasty poison ivy. And then he got poison ivy again this summer and thought maybe it came from within the hedge.

Ugh, that dang hedge. We just don’t live that hedge life. It was hard to weed, annoying to trim, hard to remove leaves from in the fall, and not attractive. And the most frustrating part is that it lined our entire driveway and our driveway is narrow, so it was hard to pull our car in and out of the garage, which we simply stopped bothering to do. And it blocked the line of sight pulling out onto the road, which made me particularly nervous with baby in the car.

So after Daniel got poison ivy and we maybe identified a plant in the hedge as the culprit, he agreed to hire a landscaper to come and pull out everything we wanted gone. A local company came and removed the hedge and rose bushes one day and returned the next day to grind up as much of the hedge roots as possible given how close they are to the fence.

This was a really long-winded way of me saying this: Guys, if there is something that you really want or something that has been bothering you a long time and you have the means to get it done, just do it. I can’t tell you how much better I feel about this backyard now that the two main problem areas that we could afford to fix are gone.

So now we have a somewhat clean slate. Next time, I’ll tell you what the plans are for this backyard do over. But for now I’m very happy to stare at (almost) nothing back here!