Room with a view... of this?

I've been pouring over photos looking for some good pictures of the backyard before I started the makeover.. or should I say makeovers.... The best I could come up with is photos my husband took of his HD. This will give you a good idea of what I saw from my floor to ceiling windows from the kitchen through to the living room. The photos run clockwise through the yard and will give you the full picture of what it looked like...for the most part. Once you get passed looking at the HD you will see the mess behind it called my garden...

These photos were taken March 2001

Note the recycle bins and the dog getting into the pizza box.

This photo is directly across my living room. Love the 1960's smiley face.


Now lets move on to the garage....

Yes I said garage... in my backyard!......

Wouldn't you just love to see this outside your living room window everyday...

So nice when you have guests :-)

The doghouse on the right is where the living room windows end. So pretty....

Now that you have an idea of what I have to work with
Lets move on to makeover number one...

September 2002

First things first... we need a real garage... something we could store the bikes in and a man space... you know every man needs a garage! I was willing to give up gardening space to get that green monster out of my yard.

Just how much space did I have to give up? 10 feet by 12 feet for the man cave and another 10 by 6ft in front of the cave.

We completed the "garage" in late Sept and painted it in Oct before the rains set in.. not that we get that much rain here. Now it was my turn to work out a plan... since winter was on its way I had time to think things over. Come Feb I was ready to start my make over... of course I didn't take any before photos but you remember what it looked like. We laid sod in what was left of the mud pit and left some room for flower beds. Oh I guess I should tell you I'm working with clay soil... very neglected clay soil. Yes I put down some manure and top soil... that's all I needed right?

February 2003

It's a start... Looking better already.
I can't really remember what I planted... I know there was a lavender... cause I pulled it out just this past year.You remember what the view looked like across the yard from my living room right?... if not go back and look... I'll wait... OK got the image in your mind? Here's what it looked like after the sod went in...

OK I can live with this. I'm starting to get the color I was looking for. Lets move on to the the area where the big green monster was. I must say even though I had to give up all that space... it's starting to look nice.

I'm sure I can figure out how to utilize the space around the man cave. Can't you just see it...vines growing on the side... And I did just that... I planted a Passiflora Vine and Hosta's


Next post..... May 2003... My how thing are filling in.