Backyard Do Over, Part 2: Potential Plans
If you managed to stick with me on the winding story I told last time about how we got to a clean slate for our backyard do over, thank you! If you didn’t, well then, you can still stick around for this much shorter post! I set the scene for the backyard do over before and now I’m going to tell you our backyard plans.
The backyard is basically two components: the actual yard and the driveway. First, I’ll tell you about the yard.
The Yard
Here’s what I’d like to do/is currently in the works:
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Green up the former rose bush garden. We’ve seeded for grass but we’ll also allow and encourage clover and crab grass to grow. This seems strange but maintaining a perfect lawn is something we are too lazy to do, nor do we care about it, and kind of impossible with an active dog. I just want it to be a green, mowable, and playable surface.
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Reshape the garden area a little bit, which I recently did, and add more perennials since I haven’t done a good job of maintaining what has been there for years.
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Add a couple clusters of tall plants or trees in key areas of where the hedge used to be to provide privacy. We like our neighbors but we don’t need to be visible all the time!
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Mulch. Mulch mulch mulch mulch.
The Driveway
We’ve put in a lot of effort trying to make this area seem less like a place for cars and more like a place where you’d actually want to hang out. And now it’s all falling apart.
After years and multiple seasons, the Ikea patio flooring was destroyed. The Ikea table we got last year is already falling apart. One of our patio umbrellas broke this past spring. And we just never loved the chairs we got from Target, although we liked the color and they are comfortable.
We got rid of the patio flooring at the end of September and replaced it with outdoor rugs that were part of Boss Bar. We’ll figure out a new table and chair situation next year. We may have to up the budget on these items. No matter what, though, I think we need to be better about bringing ALL of our outdoor furniture and decor inside ahead of winter and take better care of our things.
After the backyard do over is complete, I don’t think it will look crazy different back here, but these backyard plans should help this area work much better for us as a family that doesn’t like to or have time to weed, and wants to run around to chase tennis balls and whatever else seems like a fun use of time.
