Landscaping The Backyard {part 2}…

54 degrees - 11:24 am - foggy and misting...

We are taking advantage of the recent dry weather to do a little landscaping in the backyard.  We have an abundance of rock; everywhere you look there is rock of all shapes and sizes.  Everything from ”small” boulders the size of large garbage cans, all the way down to grapefruit sized rock that Tony has dubbed “gravel”.  Since we have some much rock everywhere we have been trying to come up with creative ways to use it, any this is one of them…

When you walk out of the back of the house, you will step onto the back patio, which is 40’ wide x 16’ deep.  Off the patio there is a 50’ wide x 14’ deep flower bed that has an 8’ wide walkway down the 4’ slope to the grassy 50’x50’ backyard.

A 50’x14’ flower bed is pretty large and we really didn’t want to have to transplant/buy that many plants.  We knew that we were wanting to use some of the rock that we have been putting in stash piles around the yard for future use.  So we talked it over and tossed around some ideas, then came up with a design.  Since there is an 8’ walkway that separates the flowerbed we wanted the to make sure the design would match size wise so put the design on a grid and marked it out. 



We came up with a star design that we marked out with spray paint.  Tony
thought a star suited the area, if you know the area, you know what I mean.



Tony then jumped into the excavator and started placing some large boulders around. 

Our 12'x12' star in progress.

Once the really large boulders were placed, we started filling in with smaller boulders all the way down to the “gravel” sized rock. 

The star doesn't look that big, but it 12 feet by 12 feet
and the center boulders are about 500 lbs each!

We still had a couple dozen large boulders left over that were too large for our design that we placed around the outer edge of the yard.  One of my favorite boulders is a perfect “bench” where three people can sit comfortably.  It is placed in the far corner of the yard surrounded by other large boulders looking back at the house. 

From start to finish it took a full day and I think it turned out pretty cool.  It is definitely not something you will see in other backyards that’s for sure!

Our two stars are completed and ready to be surrounded by plants!
Each star is in a staked out area that is 14'x14' with a 8' walkway between.

Now that the rocks have all been placed, we need to spread out the topsoil and do some transplanting!  Cannot wait!  The backyard is actually starting to look like a backyard!!!

To be continued...