Next up for the yard is to take this area next to the garage, that borders the shared driveway to make it look much better. I’m going to start small, as I suspect my neighbors are going to drive over some of it like they do the rocks. (Put the lg rocks in shortly after I moved in as they kept driving over it, and hitting the trash can. I’m lucky they didn’t destroy the sewer cleanout there. Someone did hit the utility boxes on the left side of the image, not to mention the number of times they’ve knock the rubbish/recycle bins over… Or how many times a year I have to rest the rocks) The elevated bed is going to go over the top of those, giving them a bit more protection.
It’s pretty much an 8ft by 29 ft blank canvas. This is what I have planned for the area so far, basically a phase 1 project for this year. I really wanted to put a storage shed where the pink box is, but the county said no. I have more ideas where to put one, but my bank account says NO for the for seeable future.
Instead, I’m thinking a small green house might go there. If not than some more raised garden beds. Which is what is hiding behind the box… planning… I’m decent at that but not as saving for it. (2026 is going to be a frugal year. No large purchases until I’ve paid off all current loans)
The next image is zoomed in to get a better look at the things I’m going to get set up for this year. I should have it all set up in the next couple of months. I have all of it already, I just need to move it to this location. Well, except for the elevated wood bed. That I had to order, it will show up next week sometime. Moving these here will open up some other areas in the yard that I’d like to change up.
I picked up some large pavers that I’ll be stacking the rain barrels on. This should make using them a bit easier. When they are not elevated, trying to drain the last half out the bottom of the barrel with a hose is painfully slow. Most of the time I don’t mind, since I use the watering time to check all the plants carefully. I’ll start with some soaker hoses to cut back on water use this year. The soaker hoses are better than manually watering every day. Eventually, I’ll have watering grids with timers in the beds and some drip lines in the pots. Again, that is down the road a bit once I settle on a configuration.
This is what the east side of the yard currently looks like:
That is where those pots are going to come from. I want to add another planter where the 3 troughs are currently. See the image below.
This is what I have in mind for it: I’ll have to move them and the mini shed to free up the space for the fourth planter. The hanging baskets (I do have to replace the two blueish ones, they are cracked) are going to stay with the feeder and lights.
The other section is going to really stay the same, except for the two new round beds that I was given by a friend.
The plan:
Current view: The two round raised beds are going to go where the pots are now. I want to add freeze protection to them once I get them in so I can grow some things all year. (That is if we keep having winters like this one. I still have flowers in pots from the divider down to the wood pile. That sections gets sun all year and it warms the wall up. You can feel the warmth coming off the bricks.)
The other area that is likely to need a makeover is this:
I’m worried about this plum tree. I have a gut feeling that it’s not going to come back this year. It did great when I totally neglected it. Now that it’s getting water and care, it seems to be fading. If it does die off, I’ll have it removed, and this is where I’ll likely put a shed in the future. With the new umbrella, I don’t really need the shade it was providing anymore.
The other mod to the area is the umbrella base. It’s just too big. I have a smaller one that I thought wasn’t going to enough, but I don’t leave it up unless I’m around, the smaller one will work fine in that case. I also wasn’t a fan of the ants that decided it would be a great place to colonize. I got a bit ticked off when they would bite me while I was trying to get the umbrella up or down. The smaller base weights will allow me to see if the ants are thriving before they bite me. It makes me wonder if they are the reason the tree isn’t doing so well…. I’ve been trying to kill of the colony for months, I just seem to knock it back, but not end it. It would make a good spot for a dwarf lemon tree in the summer time, if I do have to remove it.
The flowerbed that runs along the walk has been doing well the past couple of years in spite of there being some rodent that keeps eating things. I picked up some more molemax to chase it away again. It worked will this summer, I did have to keep using it, but I really hate the idea of poison. The tunnels under the yard have been around for years. So this is a battle that comes and goes. I get some reprieve when the beasty dies off until another one moves in.
The new beds that go in are going to have hardwire cloth under them to keep the rodents from getting into them.
I’m also going to try the hugelkultur method it is a permaculture technique that builds raised garden beds using buried logs and organic matter, creating a self-watering, fertile, no-till system that mimics forest soil, improving soil fertility, water retention, and aeration as wood decomposes over time, making it great for drought-prone areas, allowing decomposition to enrich the soil and act like a sponge for water.
