Since our entrance door faces the side, house numbers don't make sense on the house itself. They were originally on the garage, but I wanted them up front in the yard. So we added a small annual garden there.
Since the greenhouse install was taking forever (more in the August blog), I added a new garden area off the back deck to plant some essential veggies to have easy access. Every time Andy mowed, we needed to move our ″fireball″ and Adirondack chairs. So we decided to form a permanent space for having fires in the yard.
Annual Garden
Andy removed dirt from the driveway and repurposed it at the road. This gave me a nice spot to put a small annual garden, along with our house numbers.
Annual Garden Continued
Andy made a sign for the house numbers out of cedar. We purchased some solar spotlights to light up the numbers at night. I planted some annual flowers including some dahlias, hollyhocks and gladiolus. I finished it off with some black mulch.
Mini Garden
The lettuce and some other veggies really needed to be planted while I waited for Andy to finish the greenhouse (see the August blog for more on the greenhouse). So, I created a small on-hand veggie garden right off the back deck. First I had to dig up a bunch of tulips. I transplanted those into the front yard. I dug out the area and added large rocks around the perimeter and an old fire ring in the center. Unfortunately, the ground squirrel we have living in our yard really likes lettuce. He ate it all to the ground immediately. I later transplanted the lettuce that was left to the greenhouse. Critters!
Fire Area
It felt like we were always moving the fire ball and Adirondack chairs for Andy to mow. So we decided to create a designated fire area. I started digging it out by hand, then Andy brought the tractor in and made quick work of the rough circle area. I finished it by hand to get the circle a bit more accurate. We had some turkey visitors!
Retaining Blocks
I added pea rock around the outside edge, and then began to add retaining blocks. I worked on this project while Andy was still working on the greenhouse. It went rather quickly, since I had done retaining walls before at our home in Waterford. Lots of squats! We added landscape fabric and got a load of crushed limestone.
Fireball
I repainted our newer fireball with high heat spray paint so it will hopefully never look like our old fireball. That one rusted out badly and had to go to the dump. We enjoyed our first fire with our neighbors. I ordered four more Adirondack chairs and two more gold tables to complete the space. We hope to have many visitors enjoy a fire in our backyard over the summer.
Completion
We had a ground squirrel eat all the lettuce, spinach and arugula, but he didn't like the kale! We're still waiting for the dahlias and gladiolus to flower in the front garden.
