A Little Backyard Homestead Project

[frustratedearthmother]

Glad you've got power Sumi!

@Joel_BC - hoping that your brother and his family will be ok through this. These fires are so devastating!

 

[sumi]

This morning €3.00 got me

Yes, €1.50 each! I wish now I knew this was coming, or I would not have paid way more for the other roses I bought, but I'm very happy with this find I was thinking of putting another two roses in the little area I put aside for roses, so this was perfect.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I can see the pictures! Now I understand why you couldn't see the shed, lol!!

 

[sumi]

I started sawing off branches from the tree today and got into the shed, so I could investigate it better. The tree is an old and huge tree trunk that regrew branches. Which makes me wonder how old that shed is? It had time to fall into disuse, lose its roof, grow a massive tree inside, which got cut down and regrew quite a bit. Amazingly the walls are still in great condition. I'll take more pics once I've cleared it out more. Did not have much time this afternoon and it was raining the last 3 days, so I didn't get much done, but I am so keen now!

 

[sumi]

Finally got to take a pic of the backyard as it is now… I'm going to clear the area behind the lawn to about level with those white bags under the tree to the left and expand the lawn to there. Ditto the vegetable garden, which you can just see on the right in the pic. The compost heap is probably going to be moved to the side and that whole area around the shed penned off for the chickens. It doesn't look big, but it's a generous space.

The bit in the left is half flower bed, half need-to-be-cleared-still. That's where the stone wall is. The weedy strips in-between all this is going to be turned into walkways with the stones you can see on the ground in the shed pics… I need a lot more of them!! The famous shed is in the back left corner. The berry garden was behind me where I stood to take the pic.

@frustratedearthmother was it you that asked me for a pic of the stone wall? It runs the length of the backyard on one side.

 

[Mini Horses]

Love the stone wall. That place is a treasure trove of goodies! Way, way more work than I need but, love to see it all. With equipment it would be much easier, obviously. By hand, wow!

It will be lovely at the end.

THEN -- you will need to stay at least another year to see and enjoy the seasonal changes from all the hard work you are doing.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Yay!!!!!! Sumi has a project!

We thought about putting in a stone walkway but we realized turnout putting in extra material (and a lot of it), it would be claimed by the mud come April. Sounds like you have some great ideas!

 

[Beekissed]

How exciting to be starting out fresh in a new place! Lots of work but a great level of satisfaction in taking something that looks that rough into something of smooth, neat beauty.

Please keep us posted with plenty of pics as you go along....I LOVE that kind of story and transformation! Great too that your landlord doesn't mind what you do with the land...I love that too. My last one was of that nature, but with his next tenants that came back to bite him in the bum~BIG TIME.

Can't wait to see how it all turns out!

 

[sumi]

So he said that if he were putting in a walkway, the technically correct way to do it is to dig down, put down crushed stone with a layer of fabric over it. Then put down sand with your stones on top. He would use a compacter to... But he does this at work sometimes so you might not want/need to do all that at home!

Thank you!

 

[Beekissed]

@frustratedearthmother @Beekissed that is exactly what I plan to do, take lots of pics as I make progress. It will keep me motivated and it will be enormously satisfying seeing the change over time. The soil beneath that mess is absolutely gorgeous! My landlord told me he grew vegetables there years ago, when they lived in this house.

Ooooooo, long fallow soil! BONUS!!!! You should be able to get a GREAT first year garden out of that!