The Great Backyard Makeover

May 27 was the last time I wrote a blog post. That was a few days before school let out for the summer.  My goodness!  So much has happened since then.  I'll have to cover all that later (and I will), but I wanted to show y'all the promised progress on our yard, which on Instagram I have hashtagged #thegreatbackyardmakeover.

I should preface this post.  We are in the midst of a very long drought. Very. Long.  In 2011, we had over 100 days of over 100 degree weather.  What little grass we had in the backyard burned up.  Completely.  Since then we have been fighting to try to keep the dirt off the porch, out of the pool, and out of the house. It was impossible. With nothing to hold the dirt down and our typical west Texas wind, we created our very own dust bowl.  The house was filthy.  The pool was a mudhole, and our allergies have been out of control.  We needed to do something, but it had to be something that would reduce the amount of water we would consume significantly because around the same time our rural water supplier increased the cost of water almost two fold.

We considered covering the whole thing with rocks, but if we ever decide to sell, we don't think that would be very appealing. We also researched fake grass.  We were concerned that although the current versions of "artificial turf" are far superior to what I remember for the 80's,  and it's probably great for small areas, we needed to cover a larger plot and it's not tested enough for us to invest that much money for what might be a shorter term investment.  The costs are significant and professionals have to do it. 

We decided the most cost effective thing we could do ourselves would be to lay sod. We opted for a type that is said to be both drought tolerant and works in shade, St. Augustin Palmetto.  We also opted to significantly reduce the amount of grass and water we'd need by creating large gravel and rock covered areas: a fire pit, plant beds along the edges, a drive way for the shop, and a little patio under the trees where it's shady.  These areas, as well as covering the entire side yard with gravel, allowed us to cap almost half our sprinkler heads. Additionally we used a product called Hydretain.  Once we get the grass watered in, it should reduce the amount we need to use to keep it healthy.  The website says it will reduce water usage by 50%.  We have to reapply every 3 months.

So without further adieu and in the interest of keeping it real, I'm going to show you some real, honest befores and afters. I know some folks keep the befores to a minimum because it will all look prettier on Pinterest, but you need to know how far we've come to really appreciate the work that went into this.  My family of four spent about 30 hours total on this project, with my mom supplying much needed support in some shoveling, grocery delivery, water and Gatorade provisions and pleas to "come in and take a break".  The project included a load of caliche, 2 loads of gravel, a load of top soil, three and a half pallets of sod, one flat tire complete with stranding on the side of the road for 4 hours, 2 amazingly generous friends who saved us in our hours of need (thanks Paige and Robert!), two other great friends who loaned us their trailer (thanks Jennifer and Lee!), one Bobcat rental, at least 6 trips to Lowe's, at least 4 trips to Home Depot, a concrete cutter rental, 4 bad backs, innumerable blisters, copious amounts of sweat, some tears and a lot of pride for a DIY that actually sort of worked.

Before:

There was literally NO GRASS AT ALL on this side. Nothing.  So no pesky weeding or anything over here. 



During:

After:

We reduced the size of the yard by adding a 2 ft border along the retaining wall and adding a fire pit on the back corner.  The chairs and red trellis are from Lowe's.  The fire pit is from Sam's Club.

Before:

The pool was greenish from recent rain and a part that needed replacing.  And it was full of dirt as well.

After:

It still looks a little dry on this side.  It's been a week of some of the hottest summer weather.  But it's coming a long nicely. 

Before:

 

During:

After:

This is my favorite.  This patio was a real challenge. We thought these formed concrete pavers from Lowe's were cool. Getting them in the right order was not cool at all.  We finally found this .pdf on line and got it to work.  Since there was no grass there, we weren't worried about grass coming through, so we just built the border, added gravel, then some sand, placed the pavers and swept in more sand. We had to rent a concrete saw for the edges, but I think it turned out great.

Before:

After:

 Before:

 

After:

If you're looking for me, I'll be hanging around here.

 

Thanks for reading and for following along on Instagram.  If you have any questions about anything we did or used, feel free to leave a comment and then follow for a response and I'll answer as best I can.

I'll be getting back to making art and fun stuff like that soon!  Some friends and I are cooking up a really fun project for the fall. Stay tuned!

<3 Lori