Backyard, transformed

Is it a sign that you've reached a certain age when the idea of a garden gets your heart racing?  If so, I'm there.  I imagine that if we lived in certain suburbs, our little-big backyard project could have generated some controversy.  In hippy little Burlington where anything goes, I think we're fitting right in.

Our "blank slate" was this nice patch of backyard lawn:

Pretty, yes, but it didn't fit our vision.  Just to be sure, I waited 2 months for Erin to see the place for the first time in person before I started tearing things up.  That done, it turned out that our collective vision for the place was reasonably aligned and fairly coherent.

Step 1: While Brian's at work, Erin pulls up the stone patio.

Step 2: Dig a hole for the new patio location (nearer the house).  If this doesn't look like a lot of work, then looks are deceiving.

Step 3: You know all the sand below the paving stones?  There's 18" of it.  That's tons -- no pun intended.  Now, move it into the new hole.

Step 4: Take all those stones and do your best to put them into some kind of order.

Step 5: You see that pile of dirt?  Move that to the enormous hole you just dug the sand out of. Then start raking all of the falling leaves into it in attempt to level it out.  And raze that raised bed at the bottom of the yard and use that for filler too.  It won't be enough, so order 5 cubic yards of compost and dirt.

Step 6: Mixed among all those other steps, visit every independently-owned nursery you can find and look for the nicest (and autumn-discounted) trees and bushes you can find.  A small selection appears below.  Plant them.  Rip out all the existing trees you don't want and either transplant them elsewhere or put them in a pile for chipping (there are many more of these than the photos show, extending into the side and front yards).

Step 7: Build a raised bed out of bricks that used to be part of the patio (next year's herb spiral).  Rake yard leaves and debris into the gaping hole one last time.  Begin the process of a thin sheet mulch -- we dumpster dove for these newspapers (printed with non-toxic soy ink) and I laid down 4-sheet layers soaked in water (on the advice of a local gardening expert) and began topping with compost (the cardboard in this photo didn't stay).

Step 8: Define eventual walking paths and garden access with cardboard while filling our excavation and topping it all with a 2" layer of compost.  Then plant a mixed cover crop of Austrian peas, hairy vetch, and oats to get some nitrogen fixing under way -- hopefully before winter kill.  Water diligently.

Mixed in among all these steps were lots of smaller additions (and subtractions).  Here's a tally of what's already new and planted:

- 1 apple tree

- 1 hazelnut tree

- 1 cherry tree

- 3 Saskatoon berry bushes (2 varieties)

- 3 blueberry bushes (3 varieties)

- 2 Nanking cherry bushes

- 2 currant bushes (2 varieties)

- 1 aronia bush

- 1 grape vine (more to come next spring!)

Not bad for this little patch of yard, hey?  Barring the squirrels, someday it's going to be a regular urban orchard...we hope.  We're getting bees next spring -- they'll help bring things to fruition.  There are tons of apple trees in the neighborhood to aid cross-pollination of ours.

Over the coming days, I'll plant some garlic bulbs we've been collecting at the farmer's markets and transplant strawberry plants and rhubarb donated by a generous coworker.  We have seed catalogues already highlighted and dog-eared in preparation for spring planting.

Next year will be interesting!  In the meantime, we used to have a big back lawn and now we have this. It's more impressive in person, I must say, but still very much a work in progress.  Just for fun, go back and look at the first pictures in comparison to this one.

And come visit.