Backyard update

Click on the photo to enlarge.
The yard isn't quite done yet, but it's getting there. On the weekend, I completed the path. If you take it to the back of the property, my studio is the building at the back, and to the right of that is the new patio, behind the Japanese maple. I also completed the raised garden on the weekend. It will look a lot better once the plants make themselves at home. Next year, I'm going to have flowering vines climbing the outside of the raised garden. Just behind it, you can see the remainder of my 13,000 pounds of stone. It is going to be one more small raised garden, beyond and to the left of the Grey Owl pompom juniper. There is much more room in there than there appears to be in the picture. I took the photo from the patio just behind the house, which I'm not touching this year. In the foreground on the left, there remains a pile of soil. I'm going make that area into a rockery from the raised garden to the foreground patio - hopefully before the end of the month.

This is a situation where the power of a vision is stronger than daunting physical reality - in other words, it has been way more work than I considered. If I had allowed myself to seriously consider the extent of the labour, I may well have not done it. As well, my neighbours Joseph and Clarence each helped me when I really needed it. Tuffy and I are fortunate to have some fantastic people living around us.

By the way, there is another garden you can't see, off to the right. It includes several peonies, a butterfly japanese maple, a big old rose, and a rose o' sharon, among other things.