All dressed up..... Part 2... THE REVEAL!

Hi friends and followers......

Here's the "reveal" finally, of our backyard gravel project.....as far as we've gotten anyway. We're not done yet!  

Photo heavy, so grab your tea or coffee.......

OUR PATIO AREA:

Fresh, new, 4" deep gravel.. and best of all... no dirt and no weeds!

 Remember, it was like this before:

And though you can't see it that well in the photo, it is MOSTLY DIRT! Very little gravel.

Now, it's clean and new....

We did run out of gravel for our "patio" area, as I said in my prior post.... so hubby spent a day digging what was left from the driveway area that the guy in the loader couldn't get with his bucket. He/we also dug and brought a few wheelbarrow loads from our "back 40" as it was pretty deep there and we didn't need it so deep. We dumped as much as we could scrounge, onto our "patio" as that is what we use the most.

We still haven't finished our "alley" by the garage where the catio is. Hopefully we can do that in the Fall when it cools off again. I'm really not in the mood to have another big pile of gravel in our driveway!

Iris in foreground that I transplanted from our front yard in April!

I wanted to transplant the flowers OUT of all the plastic tubs (blue and green) but I could not find ANY that were even similar (and affordable) to match our nice wood cedar planters. We may have to build our own.

See the Iris in the blue tub? Those are the ones I dug up earlier in the year, in April, and transplanted hundreds (well maybe 50) of them.

Ran out of gravel for under hutch. Will get more in the Fall. This reloading bench, now garden "hutch" will get stained and sealed to protect it in the winter months. And of course, we  had to leave room for the kitties to sleep on the bottom. I'll put new and fresh beds for them there. They love sleeping there!

Decorated with some pretties. I've used the hutch for planting flowers for the summer, so now it's mostly just for looks - but comes in really handy to set our small tools on, watering can, things we use in the flower beds.

I planted two strawberry plants earlier this year, and finally just now getting a few strawberries! They are the hugest strawberry plants I've ever seen!

Love the fountain. It still works! I stored it in the garage all winter so it wouldn't freeze. LOVE the sounds of the trickling water.

NOW... FOR THE "BACK 40" REVEAL..........

Nice new fresh gravel... and no weeds! We're not quite done raking and leveling it yet. We ran out of steam. 

Remember, it looked like this:

Our problem now is.... instead of weeds, we have to deal with LEAVES! There are two huge Chinese Elm trees in the neighbors' yard, and whenever the wind blows (which is always)... the dried up leaves fall in our yard.. and I mean.. there are piles of them already!

Future flower bed will divide the lawn/weeds from the gravel area. Hubby reseeded the lawn, but it's not doing well no mater how much we water and feed it... but of course, the weeds love it.

We bought a leaf blower for the leaves, thinking we could blow them into a corner and then pick them up. That was a big FAIL. All it did was create a tornado of leaves... flying all over the place, into the neighbor's yard and back over on our grass! So we need to find another solution....... any ideas?

When you live in town, and not on acreage, you don't have the luxury of being able to have a big brush pile and a place to put all the leaves, branches and twigs that blow into your yard.

We have a burn barrel (sort of) but there is a burn ban on now. Oh no! weeds coming up already in the "flower bed"!!

We need a place for our tools.... need another shed..... in time I hope. The Golden Chain tree there has died. It didn't like being transplanted.

Spotty lawn. Sod would be best but not in the budget.

One final look..........  we are happy with what we've done so far. We're taking a break for awhile. All flowers are planted that I want to plant for the summer.  The back lawn "weed battle" will continue. I go out almost every day and try to dig up at least 20 weeds. Weed killer does not work as it kills the little bit of grass that we  have!

The front yard is looking good and the shrubs are growing by leaps and bounds. Our Quaking Aspen is awesome, and the crab apple tree has grown at least 4 feet. I need to remulch the little potted flower area as it's been 2 years (or 3?) since I did it last.  I did get the garden bench painted white again.  Still a few more things to do in the front.

I've managed to continue with my paper crafting in between all the yard work.... that is my solace and my Haven and peaceful place....... love my craft room! I can just go there and "bury my head in the sand" and not think about what is happening in the world today.

And of course, now I have a nice little oasis to sit at outside.. by the fountain...... which we have been doing more lately.

Until next time.. hope everyone is safe and well.

~With hugs and blessings to everyone.....~

~Marilyn~