Clean Slate

The backyard is amazing, but extremely overgrown. It is truly a "mature" landscape. We tackled the wisteria last year and need to attack it again. The larger issue, however, is how to deal with all the ivy (it's everywhere) and the huge clematis that grows up all over the pool house. I hate yard work... especially tear-out... but it's gotta go!

The side yard is just outside the bedroom wing of the house... it will be the perfect retreat once the bamboo forest fills in. (Of course, we need to plant the bamboo first!) Thought we'd keep the boat as part of the castaway theme, but it's rotten and we believe carpenter ants have carved out a home in it. Verdict: the boat's gotta go too!

I love that I don't even own a lawnmower anymore (our previous house had a grass only backyard the size of Kansas!), but all these shrubs, trees, vines and their debris/droppings (?!!) take a lot of work to keep under control. The pine trees drop a bushel of needles almost daily. Another neighbor has wisteria (more wisteria?!!) and it tries to grow over a fence near our driveway. (One day... and this is no joke... a wisteria vine had actually started to wrap itself around our truck's driver's side rear view mirror!!! And we had driven it the day before!!! I think wisteria is really from outer space.)
Haley mentioned that she hates yardwork and tearing out plants... this is true. She hired a local high school girl to remove almost all the shrubs & ivy. It looks MUCH better now. Money well spent! -S

Steve braves the ivy mass that has anchored itself to the top of the pump house. You can also see in the background how much ivy there was.

Okay, this poor pump house looked like Captain Caveman covered with ivy instead of hair! It was awkward to remove it all, but I think it's a major improvement. Our plans are to Tiki-fy it... think of it as a future hut from Gilligan's Island. -S

Clematis is cleared away... ready for the bamboo fencing! No more lattice.

I'm going to get a bunch of that bamboo fencing stuff and staple it over the lattice. And I think we'll be painting the railing and maybe adding a few decorative rail accent panels. First things first, though. -S

I trimmed up the Japanese maple. Actually looks like a tree now. (That's Steve hiding behind the tree. He's cleaning up my hack job, and I'm art directing.)

I had a full head of hair before we started this project. Now look at it! It turned white and fell out in clumps!!! -S

I'm working on the plans for the backyard and will post the "re-build" when it's complete. Sneak preview: design plan includes bamboo fencing, tiki hut pump house, tropical plants, rock (lots of rock), a bamboo forest and possibly a 6+ foot tiki water feature that spits into the pond! And that's just the east side of the yard.