Friday, March 20, 2009

Landscaping the backyard

Our backyard has become quite a mess, a desert in summer because we have no automatic irrigation, only non-functional valves, and a jungle in spring with the rains.



The plan is to convert the old lawn sprinkler system to a drip system with all new automatic valves and drip lines laid throughout the dirt areas.
The biggest remaining hurdle to getting the irrigation is tunnelling under the concrete walkway to get to the new tree, which is currently marooned in a sea of concrete with no water source.
After that is should be smooth sailing, we will be contouring the dirt, laying out a dry creek bed/walkway for the doggies, then putting down landscape fabric, decomposed granite and several boulders. Once the rock is laid down we can start putting in the plants, which will be mostly decorative grasses, lavender and rosemary with scattered butterfly bushes for some height.
Step 1 completed - clear cutting the jungle