The landscaping of the backyard has begun. Select the slide show link to see the yard transformed before your very eyes.

Just before the rains we finished spreading out the dirt and laying down weedblock. One of two raised garden beds is built and half full of dirt. We still need another 4 yards of bark and probably at least 2 yards of dirt to finish it off. We also need to move a couple of the large rocks in to the garden area and get some weedblock/bark on the pathways into the back.

We'll start planting this week and if the weather is nice we'll have more pictures after the weekend.

In the past couple of weeks we got more dirt and bark delivered and moved it into the back while it was raining. Some of the dirt was used to fill the two raised garden beds and some has been used to fill one of the areas behind the retaining wall. We've planted a bunch of plants and moved a few large rocks around so it's starting to look pretty good. built a little bit of rock wall on the path leading out to the back so that we could fill in behind the retaining wall. Also built a little box around the irrigation valve. We're now moving bark back there to finish it off.

Ordered yet another 4 yards of bark. This was used for the side yard and back behind the retaining wall. We built some more rock wall along the path to see how it looks. It turned out pretty nice. Put down some of the landscape fabric and bark so that it's not muddy off the end of the sidewalk. We planted most of the plants along the side so that only needs a few more to finish it off. One and a half large holes have been dug for more trees. A small Japanese Maple will go behind the retaining wall while a Crape Mertle will sit in front of the heat pump. We installed a new light outside the bedroom door. Overall, it's starting to look like the vision. We're slowing down a bit as Xmas parties and rainy weekends intrude.

A lot of work has been done on path layout and grading. We now have a path from one corner down to the future patio area. The area between the path and the retaining wall has been filled with the new Japanese Maple and a lot of new plants. We found a large rock by the fence while grading that and decided that it would be fine right where it was, as it was much too large to move. We started adding some wired landscaping lights that will be used to illuminate the trees. Genny bought a bunch of new plants (see above). Plants have also been planted near the north side fence. A new Crape Myrtle is planted near the A/C unit.