I LOVE our yard, not for what it is at the moment, but for it’s potential.  It’s small, private, and well shaded.  I think it’s the perfect size to give us some space to garden and entertain without being a giant time suck.  Plus there’s a nice playground about 2 blocks away (and 2 more within a 5 minute drive) so it gives visiting nieces and nephews (and hypothetical future children) a place to get their ya-yas out without us having to deal with the maintenance.  Win.

Currently though, the yard is a little sad.

We have about zero curb appeal… but a lot of that comes from the poo-brown color of our house.  As much as I hate the color, we don’t want to invest in painting/re-siding until it’s actually needed because it gets pretty pricey for a 2.5 story house (and the paint is currently in fine shape).  Until then I do still want to beef up the landscaping.  I’m picturing hydrangeas on the sunny side, and a sprawling shade garden under the larger pine.

Around the side  we’ve got some annoying slopeage happening that’s kind of PITA to mow.  Matt’s big goal for the year is to build a wall.  A small wall.  A small retaining wall.  We just want to even up the front yard and side yard a bit for a cleaner look and easier maintenance.

And then there’s the backyard.  I love how private and shady it is, but other than that it doesn’t have a lot going for it (expect potential).

The existing beds are pretty ramshackle and weedy, there’s a weird garden right smack in the middle that seems like a waste of space, and the patio is pretty beat up and mis-matched.

On the other side we have this weird shed (lean-to?) thing that serves no purpose whatsoever for us (expect for looking ugly).  It needs to go.  The fence on this side does need to get replaced, but it might not be a this-year thing.

Fixing the door is a slightly higher priority since it should be a pretty cheap and easy fix that will help things look  a little less janky.  The stone-rimmed bed over here is a new addition.  It’s going to be my pollinator garden.  I split up an existing sedum from the middle our yard, and picked up some blazing star bulbs and a pollinator seed mix to fill in (you can see all the green where they’re just starting to sprout).

The main plan for this year is demo so it will all probably look a lot worse before it will get better.  The shed needs to go, the existing patio needs to be ripped up, and the cellar entrance to our basement filled in.  Some plants I want to relocate and others may be ruthlessly ripped up.  The front yard also needs some regrading to happen so our front yard may be mostly dirt for a while.