Back Yard Makeover - the plan

Alison's Back Yard Before

It’s been a few weeks  (4 to be precise), since I shared the latest in my extreme back yard makeover.

Rest assured, the makeover is continuing. It’s extreme enough that despite lots of work it’s nowhere near complete. There’s lots more for me to share; I hope you’ll be inspired (either that or you’ll wonder if I have my head on straight)!

Hatching a Garden Plan

Over the winter I had Rachel Mathews of Successful Garden Design help me with my back yard landscape plan. After many years of staring at my garden, if you could call it that, wondering how to make it look better, it was a big relief to come up with a back yard design plan I could work from.

Drawing for Alison's Back Yard Makeover - click to see larger

Here’s the plan I’m working from – do click on my landscape plan to see it larger, and read the notes.

On the left, east, side is my rain garden to be. On the right, west, side is the area I’ve chosen for vegetable beds.

These are the two areas which are being worked on currently.

His and Hers Projects

While my husband is an engineer, I’m not much good at the kind of planning and construction needed to build things. Since April we’ve had his and hers garden projects – actually they’re both for me, but he’s in charge of the raised vegetable beds work and the adjacent paving. I’m working on the rain garden.

worksite for raised bed 04/07/10

The last time I posted about the raised bed project was April 6th. Pictured here is the same garden on April 7th, after it’s been engineerified (if that’s not a word, it should be)!

You can see how organized everything looks: stacked wood; construction strings to mark levels… I’m very thankful for this ability in my partner.

Four weeks later the raised beds are complete and the paths and paving are being worked on; I’ll show you more on the raised beds later in a post about that topic. Needless to say, like many DIY projects, this job has turned into something larger than anticipated. I wish I could say it were done by now.

Alison's Rain Garden During Rain 04/30/10

Testing Soil – Rain Garden Planning

When I wrote previously about planning your rain garden I neglected to mention that you need to conduct a test for how quickly water drains.

A comprehensive rain garden planning guide will describe how to conduct this test; basically it involves digging a hole and checking how quickly water drains away. Don’t worry, the hole doesn’t have to be large.

Here’s a Great Rain Garden Guide

Applied Ecological Services has a down-loadable, and comprehensive rain garden design and installation guide, which is helpful, if somewhat technical. It contains information on conducting a soil type test, including how to check the drainage speed.

You can see from the above photo that water pooled in my under-construction rain garden while it was raining. Perhaps surprisingly, the pooled water was all gone again within an hour or two. And within a few days the soil was very workable. Within a week, if it hasn’t rained again, the soil surface will be cracking. Drought or deluge, that’s Eastern Kansas for you!

How is your garden growing? Do you have plans underway, or are you struggling to get started?

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Related posts:

1. Extreme Back Yard Makeover
2. Back Yard Make Over – Step 1
3. Confessions of a part-time gardener