Yesterday John said, "We should have took before-and-after pictures"...

He was right of course but who ever thinks of stopping to take pictures of what-is. What-is is boring and day to day. Pictures don't even come to mind til there's a change that seems drastic enough to warrant documenting.

Pretty sure Megan didn't take any pictures, John took a couple when he was digging to show how extensive the root structure was... but I think the first picture I took was of sprouts... and now I can't seem to find that picture.

Well if if's and but's were candy and nuts we'd all have a merry Christmas, and since I don't have access to a TARDIS we'll just have to start with pics from yesterday (and maybe later we can have a "flash-back" with any pics John can dig up. :)

Lets start with the five cent tour:

North-East corner of the back yard. Dark green = grass, light green = alfalfa

North West corner of the backyard. Grey=patio stones, red=gravel.

As you can see, there's a bed already. It was covered with plastic and gravel when we arrived this summer so we tore it up, dug it up (pruning back a ton of tree roots) and planted alfalfa to revive the soil for spring. Wow...So much has already been done.

The North-West corner also had the plastic/gravel treatment under a couple planters. We moved the planters and we were pulling up the plastic yesterday so the gravel would have better drainage when one - spot - just - wouldn't - come - up.  Turns out that when the owner chose to cover these lovely gardens with plastic and gravel... he had also filled in a pond! The plastic went right under a cinder-block and several other large rocks.(see the pile in the corner of the patio?) We had to carefully dig/haul them out in order to continue. The hole was refilled with soil, gravel, and leaves before being recovered with gravel. It should make great drainage for the compost pile.

The shed's in the sunniest corner so it must move of course. The southern part of the gravel is leveled out for just this reason, but that's planned for tomorrow.

Well that's the tour and the basics of what's already been done in the back yard. Be sure to come back regularly to see how things are progressing and to hear about the plans for spring.