Backyard overhaul

When we bought our house we qualified for the tax credit that was available. Kedric and I decided up front that we would take a small portion of that money and put it into the house and save the remainder. We decided to use the money to have the front landscaping redone.

The house when we bought it in 2010

The house after having the landscape redone

My number one request was for NO maintenance landscaping. I couldn't handle low maintenance, I knew I would kill it and our investment would be wasted. Fortunately, dead heading the (gorgeous) roses and watering everything when it gets scorching hot is about all that is required. Even I can do that. Now that I have gotten my feet wet with not killing plant life, I decided to go about gardening. 

Kedric, the ever patient man that he is, supported and helped me in my venture and last summer we successfully produced some yellow squash, zucchini, strawberries, and tomatoes. This summer we have decided to take it up one more notch. Everything has been grown from seeds 

and we built 4 raised beds to house all of our goodies. This year we are going for strawberries, green beans, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, all the herbs you can handle, red peppers, and banana peppers.

We also plan to plant blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries along the fence you see in the pictures above, but we have some overhauling to do there before we can plant anything.

While we love our home and our giant backyard, there is a lot of work to be done. The reason our yard is so big is because it is poorly graded. There is a lot of run off and, in the two years we have been here, it has eroded the land so much that the fence you see pictured is beginning to fall outwards. Kedric has taken down the fence on that side of the yard and is in the process of placing several drains in the backyard to divert the floods that come when it rains. When that is all done, he will reset the fence on that side of the yard. We plan to cut down a few smaller trees, too, because the backyard is so shaded we struggle to get grass to grow. We're also going to finish off the fence along the back of our property. The owners before us only did the front and sides because there is a wire fence along the back. However, they had a huge dog that couldn't get through the big spaces! Our little ones could (if they tried) and it's not exactly the safest thing when it comes to kiddos. So, finish the fence we will. Our backyard DIY project(s) will likely take all summer and I will post more pictures as things come along!

One thing that is complete....Cohen's tree swing! He loves this thing and would probably hang out in it all day if we let him!