I’ve been meaning to start a picture thread for a while. We got the place in March 2019. The summer of that year was spent working on the house proper. The work on the yard started in October 2019. Fortunately, the previous winter was mild, which allowed us to do a lot of work on the infrastructure. I was cementing fence posts in January! The structural work continued through the growing season, alongside planting trees and vegetable gardening.
Here are some before pictures, from the house listing. It was a neglected expanse of brown grass and blacktop, with the latter predominating.
In the last picture, the strip of grass between the chainlink fence and the neighbors’ driveway is over 6’ wide, and is actually a part of our lot. I guess it was easier for the previous owner to just align the fence with the corner of the house. Reclaiming that took the neighbors aback a little, but they were understanding.
The area is about 65 x 50’. The far end (about 15’ deep) is a steep hill that was overrun with kudzu, poison ivy and trash. There is also a huge maple tree in the far (south) end of the property.
The idea was to plant some dwarf and espalier fruit trees around the perimeter, have raised vegetable beds in the center, a sunken patio (to level off the slope) with a pergola/grape arbor on top, to cut back drastically on the blacktop and to use the rest of it as a driveway container garden. Eventually, there will also be a shed on stilts, to utilize some of the hillside.
Fantastic! Really nice job turning a bleak urban lot into something amazing. What is that vine you have a picture of growing up and over the walkway? It made a lot of progress in one season. I think it would take me about 20 years to do all that work you did in one year.
Thank you, Holly! Having extra time off in spring definitely helped. I also need to give credit to my husband - he was both the artistic brains behind the design and the muscle for menial tasks, like sealing lumber, digging up gravel and watering the garden. I had to figure out and execute the technical details.
