I grew up working in the garden whether I wanted to or not. As soon as we bought our house (or maybe even before) I started scheming up ideas for what I wanted to do. I’m not convinced that the people who designed and built our house actually took into account the view, or even the property itself, so we’ve been slowly adding things to spice it up.
FENCE
The fence had to go up first so that we could keep our little monster from rolling down the hill. Once I came up with a design that we both liked I started drilling holes in the concrete, which was easily the hardest and longest part of the whole process. The most important thing that I learned was that I should stain the wood BEFORE I built it.
GARDEN BOX
For the garden boxes I sorta cherry picked designs from the internet and then tweaked them for the height and style that I thought would match the rest of the yard. I was also smart enough to use redwood so I didn’t have to worry about staining it.
PERGOLA
The pergola is our most recent addition. Again, I just looked up some designs online, drew one up that my wife really liked and then went for it. This time I remembered to stain it FIRST. While not all of the angles are perfect I do think that it gives the back area some definition and also somehow manages to hide the incredibly stupidly placed AC unit and water heater.
SANDBOX
The sandbox came from a set of plans that I found on the Home Depot website. It’s such a clever design so all I had to do was buy the wood and follow the instructions. While my daughter seems to be more interested in the gravel that I put around the sandbox, I still think that it’s a pretty neat toy for her.