Our New Yard

Ever since we moved into our home in 2008, landscaping our yard has been on the Schleicher home improvement to-do list. Now that we have two little boys who love playing outside, this particular "to-do" finally got top priority.

We have always loved our large yard. Its size has allowed for many backyard wiffleball games and gatherings with our friends. From the beginning, though, it has always needed a little help aesthetically. Here are some of the pictures from the summer we moved in. Believe it or not, the grass actually looks much healthier in these pictures than it did at the start of this summer!

This beautiful aspen tree unfortunately bit the dust last year. It got some kind of disease, developed a blackened trunk, and failed to produce any leaves.

The far left portion of our yard contained an ugly overgrown juniper bush and a rocky RV pad. The right corner must have been a sort of garden at some point. The grass in this area was spotty and more weed-driven than anything. We did have a fence surrounding our yard, but it was a short chain-link fence that provided little privacy for little ones.

Although we love the size of our yard, it's been a bit difficult over the years to keep up with in terms of watering. The first summer, we quickly learned that our so-called sprinkler system didn't reach all portions of our yard, nor did it sufficiently keep the yard green (other than directly surrounding the sprinkler heads). Jason has been so good at keeping up with manual watering during the past few summers, but this job is hard work! We both agreed that the cost of getting new sprinklers would be worth the extra time we'd get to spend with our boys.

So... the landscaping & renovations finally begun! First, we had a landscaping crew come out to install the sprinklers. Jaden and Cody loved watching the crew's every step from our front window. The workers would smile back at the boys every time they pounded on the window. 

We also watched their work in the backyard.

The boys especially liked watching the bobcat drive through our yard and dump new rock.

The crew was a hard-working group of 6-8 young men, so they were very efficient. They installed a new sprinkler system in the front & back yard, put in new aluminum edging around the entire house, cut down our aspen tree and tore out the juniper bush, planted 2 trees and a few plants in the back corners, dumped rock around our entire home and in the back corners, AND laid a few long rows of sod in the back of the yard. All of this work they completed in just parts of 2 days! We were impressed with their work ethic and very pleased with the final result.

But before you see the "after" pictures, we have one more step to go-- our new fence. The fence company actually tore out the chain-link fence and installed the new fence posts a month early. This plan was perfect for our landscaping crew, as it gave them easy access to our yard.

Jaden and Cody also LOVED this plan! Who knew that having metal posts surrounding our yard could be so much fun?

Every day that we played outside, the boys would eagerly grab rocks to bang on the posts. What a wonderful high-pitched clanging sound this would make! We're sure that our neighbors enjoyed the beautiful music, too. :)

Due to our new sod and the newly-scattered grass seed, our sprinkler system got a LOT of use this summer! The grass "greened up" in a jiffy and grew quickly. Daddy called in his back-up crew to help him cut the lawn.

Jaden and Cody were fast learners. :)

They helped Daddy beautify the lawn for our final picture-taking.

So... here it is-- our new yard! From the front, you can see the new fence.

Some of you may remember our single line of chain link in the front dividing our yard from our neighbor's. This portion of the fence is now completely gone, opening up our yard a bit and allowing Jason to mow more evenly.

And here are the backyard pictures:

You can see the gate, the new fence, the extended rock edging, and the greener grass.

The new edging is shaped much more sensibly and extends evenly around our home.

We like how the new edging connects around the entire yard.

The larger rock has a nicer look and is a better size for our boys, too (a little less of a choking hazard :) ).

A faraway view of the landscaped corner.

The full view of the new backyard (hooray for greener grass, too!).

We love the look of the newly trimmed tree.

An up-close view of our landscaped corner (Both corners are identical). The tree and the plants are connected to a drip system with our sprinklers, so we don't even have to worry about extra watering.

The side view, including our 2nd backyard gate.

And one more full-yard view from the other angle. We're still fine-tuning our sprinkler settings to work on a few dry spots in the yard. It doesn't help that we haven't had any significant rain for over a month, either.

Overall, though, we are SO pleased with our healthier lawn, the convenient sprinklers, the tasteful landscaping, and our privacy fence. Our active, outdoor-loving boys are sure to enjoy many hours in this new space!