Sharing your yarden 2

It has been awhile since I said I would share one of my latest projects. I have a few finishing touches to make yet, but it is pretty much done.

I started out with a very low wet spot in the back yard, where the neighbors drain the runoff from their barn. We bought the property knowing this, so couldn't do much about it later.

I finally decided I needed to fix this problem as it was flooding my yard and gardens after every moderate rain. So, I dug a channel to direct the water. It worked so well that I wanted to make it a focal point of our backyard. I thought I could get away with just putting the rocks down and let it naturalize. Well, it naturalized alright! Weeds, weeds, and even MORE weeds. Looked crappy most of the summer.

In August I decided it was time to renovate!

I took out all the rocks and put down commercial weed barrier, like they use to hold back water along the roads when they do ditch work. Then I started returning the rocks. Several heavy rains slowed down the progress, but it did let me see if my new strategy was going to work.

Here is my project, well under way, but it is when my DH reminded me I needed to take pictures!

This is further down the road on the western most end next to the neighbors barn. I still need to do some little detail work, but I am extremely happy with how it turned out. If you look up next to the barn you can see the downspout connected to the drainage tube I attached.

And it RUNS water perfectly!

This is the long view, I still want to make a few minor finishing touches.

I am hoping to make it look just a bit more natural and not so 'straight'!

I intend to plant a few creeping plants along the outsde eges here and ther to soften the look. As you can see, one plant has already decided where its home was going to be and we just worked around it when we were in the redo process.

And finally, here is what I mean about the 'straight' look!

Sue, you have more energy than ten people. That looks fantastic! Nice job! :)

Diann

Thanks Diann, but i am one of the laziest people you will ever meet. Wanda makes me look like a slug!

In my second post i put up the wrong photo and you can't see the drain tube i attached to the neighbors barn. (I did ask first!)

Here is the correct picture: poor quality but the best i can do for now :-)

Don't remind me of Wanda's energy, she makes us all look like slugs. But your efforts here is something to be proud of. You did a really nice job and I'm sure the neighbors are happy for the result too. :)

Diann

Wanda is a freak of nature, but we love her anyway. ;)

I can't believe you moved all that rock ~ twice! Holy moo!! You'll never convince me that you're not a hard working gardener. Looks great. :)

Just wonderful!!! Nice job. Great way to fix a problem area.

It really looks GREAT!!!

Judy

Thanks all!

Moby, actually, I moved all that rock 4 times! I went up to a friends farm and picked up a truck load of the smaller large rocks and then I had to unload them from the truck......well, you know the rest of the story! Oh, did I mention that I had to load all the small stone by hand into the truck and pile it up so I wouldn't have it stolen from me. 9 loads at 2 ton each.

Ok I'll shut up now and just enjoy what I have gotten done so far. I'm going to let it settle a bit more before I try to add some 'curve'

Thought I would show you a picture of my winter wonderland. You can barely see all those rocks I lovingly moved several times over! LOL

Sure hope that 'dry' stream bed functions like it is supposed to when all of this melts.

Here was my yarden two days ago. I have boatloads of lilies sprouting - and now only 23 degrees last night. I hope I don't lose any.

And the back....looks like I am down the street from Ililyfan!!

Yikes.... Isn't that yard a bit bigger than your last one? ;)

It really looks lovely Steve, even in the "winter". I can just about imagine it all bloomed up, the key is *almost*, you'll have to provide pictures to help our imaginations out a bit ;)

Yep, it sure does look like you are just down the street.! I thought I saw a bit of yellow in that first picture, were my color hungry eyes deceiving me?

Hi Moby,

Yes we bought this place in 2006 - so this is our 2nd spring here!

Howdy Tracey - well we dropped to 23 last night and the tulips and even the sprouted peonies are "leaning over". Most of the lilies seem to have made it and I hope everything else pops back up. I did find a peony stem with a bud on top that had snapped (sniff) so that is one less flower for my 2nd year!! I will watch it closely over the next few days.

LOL Ililyfan, you are not colorblind. I think it is squirrel pee pee. We noticed it when we were out walking around in the stuff. A lof ot it is near the bases of the trees LOL. Oh you mean the flowers!!! hehe yes I had/have a bunch of daffs in full bloom, and some hyacinths too. The daffodils seem to be more resilient with this stuff than anything. Still lots just poking through so even if I have to cut some of these flowers with freeze burn down, there will be more popping up soon.