The Plans - The Garden

Oh, there are so many things to be done in the garden, it's hard to know where to start. Once we close escrow (updated expectations are this Tuesday), we'll attack the weeds and overgrown... everything. As we'll need to get a cashier's check and go into title to sign the papers on Tuesday, I'm planning on taking the day off and going to the house straight after to finally attack the weeds that I've just had to look at each time I've visited the house in these past three and a half months. As for the new design, I've already drawn probably a dozen overhead views trying to figure out what to do and have a pretty good idea for it but we won't really know how plausible it is until we start the work. But whatever the end layout ends up being I know the elements I'll want to put in. So what I'll do is tell you those and that will give you a good idea of what we're hoping for in the end.

1. Lots of Trees - I want proper shade in the end for our hot midsummer days. I hate flat expanses, with no chance for cover. I want to have one tree that will become very large with age for the middle, slightly rear area of the garden, probably where the lemon is now. Yes, the lemon will go. I like it very much but the tree is a very strange shape because it's been badly pruned numerous times - I'll take pictures of it some time later. For that big tree, I'm thinking a black oak right now.

Beautiful leaves and branching structure, Great fall color and a good source of food for all the little animals I'd like to attract. After the oak, I'd like some fruit trees - a new lemon, a cherry and a nectarine for Patrick. Then one or two beech trees for near the house. (And I won't go into shrubs and things smaller than that just now)

2. Dry Creek Bed - Running through the whole backyard from the upper right to the lower left. It'll help with drainage during the rainy season and also help the soil retain more of the run off as it changes the direction of the flow and slows it down (at least this is what I've heard - and it will look cool! hehe).

3. Pergola - In the rear left corner of the yard for our instant shade, draped in wisteria. Although I'm not sure how well that will work now that I've discovered grape vines coming over from the neighbors yard in that corner. I guess if they grab onto the pergola and intertwine with the wisteria that won't be a problem, it's probably more likely that the wisteria will get out of control I guess. I'll try planting it next to the farthest post from the grapes. I'll also want to hang a swinging wooden bench from the pergola, I've always liked the idea of having a nice wide and deep bench swing. We could even put in cushions.

4. Sitting Area around a Fire Pit - Just in front of the pergola I'm thinking. With flagstones or decomposed granite and Adirondack chairs and a round cauldron like fire pit.

5. Stone Retaining Wall - This will be our first construction project probably. A proper retaining wall just in front of the dinky one already there. We'll build it with cinder blocks and eventually, if not immediately, face it with stone veneer. Proper veneer though - not the slabs that are made to look like six small pieces of stone but individual pieces with no grout showing between them. Since the cinder block wall will be cheap and effective, we can build that and then add on the cosmetic facing later if it turns out to be expensive. We'll dig a small trench to start the wall and then regrade the sloping bottom half, dumping the excess behind the wall to build up the higher level. To get rid of the old one foot wall made of various bricks and cement (...yeah, I don't know why), we will get a jackhammer from the Oakland Tool Lending library and then bury the bits behind the new wall! hehe (I like the wall part of the picture below, not the steps)

6. Lawn - Well, we've got to have a small bit of turf, Patrick wants to have it besides it's traditional. On the lower level, we'll have a brick patio extending along the right side to the stairs in the retaining wall, then next to that the dry creek, and on the left a small circle of turf accessible by a flat wooden bridge we'll make ourselves.