Backyard Before - After

charles in Canada

As with my front lawn, I declared war on my weed infested grass and vowed to retire my bad tempered, smelly and dysfunctional lawn mower for ever. The results are quite satisfactory but I do need to spend a small fortune on shrubs and flowering plants now.

Back Yard Before & After Pond Water Feature Water-Wise

1 of 26: Backyard Before.

2 of 26: Replaced by some 'low grade' mulch under which is a layer of 20 year weed fabric. Planted some fruit trees.

3 of 26: Made a winding gravel path to separate a garden area (with no weed fabric underneath) on the left with the mulch area on the right.

4 of 26: The left side of my yard when I first bought the property.

5 of 26: Same area, several weeks of hard labor later.

6 of 26: Top right area before landscaping.

7 of 26: Different kind of mulch for contrast. The Golden mulch (cedar bark) is more expensive but worth it especially if used in the front yard.

8 of 26: Bottom right before landscaping.

9 of 26: Bottom right after landscaping.All mulch and gravel areas have 20 year weed fabric underneath.

10 of 26: Bird's eye view of left side when lawn and weeds were kings.

11 of 26: Same view later. Used dirt from the pond to make raised flower bed in the flower / rhubarb area on the right.

12 of 26: Same area in its original 'glory'.

13 of 26: Different mulches add contrast but I still need to add flowering plants that deer wouldn't even sniff at.

14 of 26: View from bottom right before landscaping.

15 of 26: Same view, much later. Added fire pit area (left) and large pond.

16 of 26: Firepit, relaxation area with 16 X 16 concrete slabs bought from Rona and laid directly on weed fabric.

17 of 26: My old strawberry patch before landscaping.

18 of 26: Same strawberry patch. Path is made by tree bark collected from nearby lake on mulch covered weed fabric.

19 of 26: To make the pond level I had to raise the ground by about 3 feet. Some old concrete 'footsteps' prop up the front side.

20 of 26: See 'Anatomy of a pond' description of how to make this pond. Large views on http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/563265606OfLzmz?vhost=home-and-garden

21 of 26: Driftwood to border the pond and hide the liner gathered from local lake.

22 of 26: Top left view before landscaping.

23 of 26: Same area much later. Top pond waterfalls into the large pond below.

24 of 26: The sod taken from the lawn is turned upside down to make the smaller pond and strawberries are planted. Mulch keeps moisture in.

25 of 26: Same area. I ran out of large stones at this point.

26 of 26: Small plants and ground cover is planted on the left side of the ponds. Filter (bottom right) is somewhat hidden by bark.

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