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Landscaping Updates In The Backyard

Update: Thanks so much for all the kind words and general awesomeness on yesterday’s post. You guys rock my socks.

Ladies and gentlemen, we actually have a backyard. Well, we still need to get some grass going on, but three phases of digging and transplanting and weeding (here’s phase one, and here’s phase two) have definitely turned our Jumanji-esque backyard into a nice clearing for Burger & Clara to run around in… once that aforementioned grass makes itself at home. And we still have a ton of giant trees on the side and back of our lot to keep it from feeling too open and stark, which seems to be the sweet spot for us.

But enough jabbering, the pics do all of the explaining anyway:

2bef After1

As you can see, we leveled the second 15′ wide planting bed, and dug up the rest of the borderline-insane amounts of liriope that encroached on the area that we’d rather just seed and mow for a nice lush little swatch o’ grass. We also brought in some dirt from the back of our lot (free!) in an attempt to level everything out to get it ready for grass, although we’ll add a little top soil when we seed just to be sure we’re giving those little grass seeds all the reason in the world to take root.

We also did some tree-maintenance in the form of cutting these two giant vines that are cannibalizing an old oak tree (they’re so thick and crazy that during Hurricane Irene we worried the extra weight of the vines and the dense leafy branches would pull the tree down on our house). You can see which tree they’re on if you scroll up to the before and after pics above (it’s that crazy leafy-looking mass hugging the tree next to the corner of the house on the right).

2 Cutting Root0

Reciprocating saw + John = buh-bye oak-strangling vine. We actually heard from a certified landscaping expert that we hired back in April thanks to a Living Social deal (more on that here) that it would be best to remove any vines from all of the trees on our property, just to keep the tree in the best possible health and not have to worry about them choking the trees or making them fall in a storm. And you apparently just have to cut a chunk out from the base so the roots can’t keep sending nutrients up through the vine and it should slowly die off (then you can yank it off the tree if you don’t like the look of a bunch of dead leaves hugging your tree like a beer koozie). We’ll keep you guys posted on how that goes…

2 Cutting Root3

While the reciprocating saw was out we also used it to cut out some old roots (from trees that were cut down decades ago) that would have made for some lumpy not-level grass…

2 Cutting Root

… and we also had another brush with nature. Although this time it wasn’t a tiny snake, it was a baby squirrel. Cue the collective “aww.” This picture doesn’t do his insanely cute size any justice, but take my word for it, this is totally one of those baby animals that you’d see on Pinterest and let out a gasp at his sheer adorable-ness. He was smaller than my hand and quite wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.

2 Baby Squirrel

But back to the yard progress. At the end of another 3 hour span (aka: another Clara nap), we had completed our third and final phase of bushwhacking and finally have reached ready-to-seed status. Woot!

2bef After2

It’s so funny because every time I turn the corner to walk into the backyard from the patio on the side of the house, I think I’m going to be met with the view in the top pic, so it never fails to make me jump when I see the cleared out view from the bottom pic instead.

2bef After3

It definitely looks kind of stark now, but we know when we get a nice lush carpet of green grass going on that it’ll be awesome and open without feeling too cleared out since our lot is almost an acre that’s chock fulla wooded area on both sides of the house along with most of the area behind the house. So this will just be one open and grassy area for Burger and Clara to have fun in while various woodland creatures can do their thing everywhere else.

Oh and here’s a really great example of how a giant planting bed can block your whole house from the back. And then after a few days of work, it can be history. Poof. Begone house-blocking bush.

2 Bef After6

So much better! And I can’t even explain how happy we are to see the old brick paths again (so charming!). After nearly two years of staring at about two-bricks-worth of them while the rest was completely covered in leg-tickling liriope, they’re a sight for sore eyes (and itchy liriope-groped legs).

2 Bef After7

So there you have the latest on our backyard progress. Of course we’ll share seeding/grass-growing pics whenever we can, but we’re pretty psyched that this whole area just took a few pretty serious (but totally doable!) days of work to result in some pretty major changes.

Do you guys like to tackle your outdoor projects in phases? Do you dream about having a certain landscaping setup when you move in (like we did back in 2010) but then take a few years to get your momentum up (we’ve almost been in our house for two whole years, so it’s about time for this!!). It’s amazing how time can fly when you’re putting off yard work…

Comments

  1. Sarah says

    Sherry,
    Could you please share with us how you all made sure that the vine you all cut was not poison ivy and was benign? It could be wintercreeper as it tends to look hairy like poison ivy vines and also has berries, but please don’t let the only factor be that it had berries.
    Posion Ivy also has berries and flowers and can also have different sizes and shapes to its leaves. You have to keep more of an eye out for the pattern of the leaves placement than they way they may look. For everyone who may have a vine like this and is allergic…please please please make sure that what you have IS NOT poison ivy before clearing.

    Reply

  2. Amy D says

    It looks great! Have you ever thought about cutting back those tall bushes under your den window? When we purchased our house, no one had lived in it for over a year and the people before were avid gardeners. Needless to say, we ended up with jungle like bushes all around our house. We took a LONG weekend to cut down all the tall bushes against our house (left nothing but a stump) and they all came back all tame and healthy looking and we can control their shape. And it was easy to mulch around them and put that weed block stuff down. Not that yours look jungle like, tall or unruly, but I just think that if you let them go much longer, they will block some of your window and if you start to trim them, they might be hard to shape with their height as tall as they are right now. You could probably cut back the shorter ones in front too if you wanted to. I am by no means an expert when it comes to anything outdoorsy, but that’s what worked for us.

    Reply

  3. Bonnie says

    Can’t believe the difference it makes, looks great! And glad you included the shot looking directly toward the back of the house. Despite all the times you call it a “backyard” and refer to the patio on the side of the house, I still was picturing them swapped.

    Reply

  5. Kerry says

    You guys have done some amazing work on your yard! And all in 3 naps time! What an accomplishment and what a difference it makes!!!

    Reply

  6. Tracy says

    Just curious how you guys got rid of the giant bushes. Our yard has been a jungle since we moved in, especially with giant tree bush type things along our fence line. Over the summer we did a little bushwacking of our own, and thought we had them dug up, but they just keep growing back. It’s so frustrating!!

    PS – your yard looks FAB!

    Reply

  7. Diana says

    I’ve always lived in apartments until five years ago, when we took the leap and bought a house with just a patch of garden. I DON’T KNOW A THING about gardening, but I find so rewarding to see that a seed one plants tentatively in the spring becomes sucha sassy and cheeky bush of flowers by July, and in October it looks like and old, fat, all knowing lady. I’ve just put three trees, and they don’t look dead yet, two weeks later, i’ve put eleven roses, hoping they will take on in the spring, and a raspberry bush and two strawberry plants, hoping for jam next fall.
    Wanted to say this for a long time: i’ve been following your blog since the days of Clara’s birth, and you gave me the courage to try. I am terriied by a house versus an apartment, and I usually get paralysed with fear. But following your journey gave me the nudge to try. Sometimes it’s a success, sometimes the path is longer than expected, and sometimes I have to laugh at myself. But I keep doing and trying, and you are part of the thrust that’s keeping me going. Thank you!

    Reply

  8. Laura says

    Oh wow, that looks sooo much better! I love the before-and-after effect of projects. I don’t have a yard since I’m in an apartment, but I did clean out and organize the closet that my husband and I share. It makes me so happy to walk/peak in there! On a related note, I need to get out more…

    Reply

  9. erin says

    Wow! I admire your motivation so much. This is the type of thing my fiance and I would want to do, but would NEVER get around to because we’re lazy and it looks like a huge pain in the butt. We’d just complain about it for like 7 years and then solve the problem by moving into a new house…

    (BTW, looong time reader, first time commenter. Love you guys!)

    Reply

  10. Lil says

    So.Much.Better. Even without grass! I think I’m going to road trip to Cincinnati (from Detroit) this weekend to see you guys. Kind of excited.

    Reply

  11. Michelle Griffin says

    The yard looks amazing! My comment is more related to yesterday and the new book. Did I miss a post, or have you not yet blogged about your spread in the November 2012 issue of Good Housekeeping? I read it last night, and it’s such a great article, thought you’d be sharing with everyone! I don’t want to scoop you, but just had to ask?

    Reply

  12. jessica says

    Lord yes. We’ve just dug up (jackhammered out) a concrete path that went from the street curb and through the middle of the yard to the front porch. We filled it in with dirt but have to wait for spring to plant grass and make a new, more logical walkway from the driveway to the front door. We posted about it here (http://jessjots.com/2012/10/10/demolition-derby-2012/)and here (http://jessjots.com/2012/10/11/un-demolition-derby-2012/). I may or may not have been really happy that I was too sick to do any of the heavy work… ;)

    Reply

  13. Christy Niebaum says

    Do you guys have any plans for sprucing up the brick paths? Like powerwashing? Or will they remain au naturel? Love them. So charming! Will look awesome surrounding by luscious green grass in the spring.

    Reply

  15. Lizzy says

    “…the look of a bunch of dead leaves hugging your tree like a beer koozie”… = best quote today.

    We cut down vines from all our old trees when we first moved in (2008), and I’m so happy we did. I’m positive we saved them (and saved our yard looking like a bunch of hairy legs.)

    Reply

  17. Stephanie N says

    I don’t know why but I kept reading your “then” and “now” as “then” and “wow”. :)

    I love the brick paths and the some grass areas will look nice. I love really landscaped natural types of yards but you do need SOME grass. Think how long it took the original owners to plant all those liriope!

    Reply

  19. Julie M. says

    It looks great! Now is definitely the right time of year to do this type of work, as well. If your goal is to rip out/kill off overgrowth, do it in the fall. Can’t wait to see what’s next.
    p.s. your site is so hard to use this mid-day time. takes several minutes to even load the page or comments. I usually have to wait to visit your site late into the evening. I wasn’t sure how aware of it you were. I’m at work, with the fastest internet connection you can get.

    Reply

  20. OSUJillyBean says

    So glad your vine is a safe one! Ours turned out to be poison ivy or something and my face swelled up after getting a faceful of vine-dust from sawing it down. Had to go to the Urgent Care and get several shots of steroids. (And talk about attractive. Nothing says “beautiful” like giant red face and your eyes swollen shut!)

    Do you guys have to watch out for Clara and Burger getting into the foliage?

    Reply

  21. Krystle @ Color Transformed Family says

    Wow! It looks completely different. All that work paid off.
    I’m not sure if it’s just me but the past two days that I have followed the link from Facebook on my phone the background shows up as one of Sherry’s ORB door handles and doesn’t have the white background for the text. Which makes it impossible to read. I’m not sure what could be doing this but thought you might want to know.

    Reply

  22. Ginny @ goofymonkeys says

    AMAZING! I love how the path is totally visible now.

    The only yard project we have going on right now is digging in an invisible fence for our dog. It’s hard work, but it’ll be great once it’s done!

    Reply

  23. Kara says

    Help! My fiance and I are having engineered hardwood installed and the only part of the project that the installer won’t do is removing the kitchen tile from our small condo kitchen. Since we’re paying an arm and a leg for the floor installation we were hoping to do it ourselves this weekend. We’d be all for using a Home Depot rental of some kind to help get up whatever mess might be lurking under the tile, but their giant floor scraper seems overkill. Any advice for what the best, easy to handle rental tool might be?

    Reply

  24. heyruthie says

    looks great. i have similar brick paths that also get little weeds growing through the cracks–like yours have. i’ve recently discovered the best “natural” weed killer: 75% vinegar and 25% water. Put it in a spray bottle, and spray all the weeds in the cracks. in a few days, they’re dead. for stubborn weeds, you can re-spray with 100% vinegar. it’s awesome. no more chemicals, and Clara can even get in on the fun. my kids love using this “weed killer” with me in the yard! 2 year old + spray bottle = fun!

    Reply

  25. Kara says

    ooh, follow-up; I’d been reading through John’s bathroom demolition and about how much he loved the rotary hammer for the job. Home Depot has them for rent; do we risk damaging the cement underneath or is it pretty good for removing thinset or glue without worrying too much about hurting the cement underneath?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think it should be ok! I would just ease into it and go slow and see how it goes without giving it too much pressure before knowing how powerful it is! Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  27. katalina says

    how old is that oak that is really really close to your house with the vine?

    I would have an aborist look at the health of your trees on your property–some are too close and with the ice and snow storms etc

    I have been trying to tackle a next store’s neighbor vine on their tree that will soon make it way down the fence and choke out everything…including my trees.

    Reply

  28. John says

    Did the same tree hugging vine removal, will gradually die. The vine from the ground could be sprayed with weed and grass killer to kill it.

    Reply

  29. Megan says

    I am loving the transformation! It looks so much more organized and clean! We had such a weird yard when we moved in the weeds were at least knee high…once we got the actual yard under control…we had to dig up a ton of cement that surrounded the base of the entire house. They said it would keep out the bugs….
    …
    Didn’t really work…and so we now finally have a garden out there. But our back yard looks similar to yours…next year it’s our major project! We have a lot of grass planting to this year because of the terrible summer we had…interested to see how you guys do it. We are virgin yardigans I call it. :) No clue how to do a lot of outside stuff! :) Good luck with yours! It already looks great!

    Reply

  31. katalina says

    good…now if john could visit with his tools and tackle the huge vine hanging over the fence…..and give me kitchen cabinet paint color advice…

    oh no all the Poison ivy comments…makes me wonder. Posion ivy=me=emergency room

    I almost took the poster at the dr’s office with 40 different pictures of what poison ivy and oak looks like!

    Reply

  32. Margy says

    This is so exciting, and therapeutic! No need to reply to this, I just had to say something! It really does feel therapeutic!

    Reply

  35. Leah says

    We recently did this in our yard, so it’s refreshing to see someone else feels our pain! Good job! I love the brick pavers, so charming.

    Reply

  36. Lisa T says

    Wow! Looks amazing! What a difference. I guess in the shot looking at the back of the house, that that lower door is to the basement? Anyway, for a few naps of work, you REALLY got a lot done. Looks fabulous! I picture a bird bath out there new the tree line, maybe? And one of those glass gazing balls… just for a hint of color out there!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, that’s the door to get into the basement (it’s a separate entry dealio). And we’d love to paint that door bright yellow like the front door and also add something fun like a bird bath (we actually already have one out there but we can’t show it until the book’s out— hint, hint).

      xo
      s

  37. Sarah says

    Looks great! We just bought our first home in May, and we had quite the jungle growing on one side of the house. It takes a lot of sweat and effort (and some grunting, lets be honest) to get rid of it all! And pretty sure John just helped solidify my need for a reciprocating saw… :-) keep up the awesome posts!!

    Reply

  38. Nancy says

    Can you imagine how much trouble someone went to in planting all of that? I know it’s hard work getting it all out but WOW, it sure is looking great!

    Reply

  39. Erika says

    This looks AWESOME! What an awesome backyard to grow up with (once it has some grass, of course!) My inner child is so jealous…

    Reply

  41. Erica says

    Wow! I can’t believe how much you got done in just a few days. The yard looked so much more intimidating to me than the deck, so I’m just amazed how big the transformation was in just a fraction of the time the deck took. But really, both projects are an inspiration; I now think tackling our own yard won’t be so bad!

    Reply

  42. Kat says

    We’re struggling right now to figure out what to do with our backyard of the house we just bought. It needs a fence but we can’t fence it until we know what we’re doing with the landscaping but we want the fence now (toddler and large dog) but we’re undecided on the landscaping…evil cycle!

    Yard looks great. It’s an actual yard now! :)

    Reply

  43. Anna says

    Ha! I finally figured out where your backyard is relative to the house! The enlightening picture was one of the “NOW” photos that shows your patio and the backyard in the same shot. Yay! Seriously, I was beginning to think that I was challenged in the spatial reasoning department, but maybe it was just all those bushes throwing me off.

    Great job, you guys! The backyard looks a hundred times better already!

    Reply

  44. Pam the Goatherd says

    What a wonderful transformation!
    We have 6+ acres of backyard so we most definitely have had to work in stages to turn it into what we envision. After 15 years we still are probably only half done. Stage 1 was creating a picnic area with a firepit (dug by our oldest son who was about 10 years old at the time and lined with rocks the whole family has collected over the years). In the interim years we have built a shooting range at the far back side of the property; a camping/tent pad surrounded by spruce and pine trees for privacy; a path through the woods down to the creek; a fruit orchard; a berry garden; a veggie garden for perenniels and another for annuals; flower beds around one of our storage barns; a butterfly garden; and we’ve planted flowering shrubs in various places around the house where we can enjoy them from the windows of our home.
    Still to accomplish: putting in a resting area with a bench and some other things at the end of that path through the woods beside the creek; putting a dock in on our 1 acre pond; building a gazebo on the “beach” alongside the pond; and planting a wildflower meadow (I’ve been weed killing out there for two years and have planted some purple coneflowers and black-eyed susans this summer but I don’t know how well established they got with the drought we had).
    I think landscaping is one of those things that is never really “done”.

    Reply

  45. Alisa says

    I can’t tell from the pic, but I’ll bet you $100 that vine is Asian bittersweet. It gets thick like that–bigger than your arm–and has orange/red berries. That stuff is the DEVIL. I swear I spend half my waking hours removing it from my property. Granted I’m up north, but I have a densely wooded acre with nearly every vine imaginable on it, and I have NEVER heard of “holly” being a vining plant. That’s a new one for me. I’m going with bittersweet–especially if it grows AROUND the tree vs just straight up it. That’s asian bittersweet’s MO: girdling. That’s how it kills.

    Love you guys and love your work, but do have to just add the comment–you probably don’t want to cut those roots popping out of the ground, even though they’ll make your lawn lumpy. Those are important for your trees and severing/damaging those could be very detrimental to their health. Unless you don’t care if the tree kicks it, you really want to leave those roots alone.

    Excellent work clearing out your jungle! :) HUGE improvement and it will only get better. High fives!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh Alisa, sorry to be unclear about those roots we cut in the yard! Those are for old trees that used to be in those beds but were cut down years ago- so only the roots remain in some areas. We’d never cut out roots for living trees! As for an Asian bittersweet, it could totally be that. Does it have leaves just like a holly (with point edges that totally hurt if you step on them barefoot?). If so that’s what it is and I only remember the arborist saying “holly” when she was saying it “has holly-like leaves but is actually a asdjhasklhdfljsdhfalkjhsfd” (that’s what it sounded like when she named the technical species names of things, hahah).

      xo
      s

  46. Ally says

    WOW! Who knew those charming brick paths were there!

    (It’s almost like the Youngsters just uncovered the Terracotta Warriors Underground Army in China :)

    Good work! :)

    xox

    Reply

  48. NancyY says

    Congrats on the hard work – it looks so much better. Considering you guys try to be eco-friendly – you’re probably already up on this but I’m wondering if you’ve seen or have favorite books on having an eco-friendly yard? I recommend looking at ‘Beautiful No-Mow Yards by Evelyn Hadden for starter ideas but wondered if you were using other sources when planning out the yard stuff.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we have some great ones! We love The Organic Lawn Care Manual. It’s how we got our first house’s yard nice and green without having to pump it full of chemicals (we’ve even made compost tea for the yard!).

      xo
      s

  49. Sarah says

    You mentioned cutting out some big roots in the soon-to-be-grassy area so that the lawn wouldn’t be lumpy. Were these the soon-to-be-dead vine roots? Or were they tree roots?

    We have big tree roots in our yard but I’m always afraid if I damage them it will kill the tree (that I want to keep). I was wondering if maybe the arborist mentioned that it would be ok to cut some tree roots?

    Reply

  50. katalina says

    do you know what you are rated on amazon?

    amazing!!! congratulations!

    WOW…and who knew that Burger’s fancy name is Hamburger–sounds funny to read his full name in bio!

    Reply

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