So I've been a little busy.....

Usually every summer I take on some type of project in our garden. However, this year it turned into many projects that all started with renting a sod cutter. I have been wanting to cut back on the grass areas in our yard for years and when my husband finally agreed, well, we went a little hog wild with the sod cutter that we rented for 2 hours. And once the sod was cut, the vacant areas screamed for a project. Now we are going into fall and so far I am at the tail end of several projects and have a feeling they will go into next summer.

Since they are not finished this is a sneak peek so I at least have something to post!

 

No this is not our patio, but it all started with this picture of a brick patio we saw in Mexico. I have always wanted to do this in our own backyard. As you will see below, the patio I am in the progress of installing is hardly anything like this other than they both have bricks.

I forgot to do the real before pictures. These are after most of the projects started, in the beginning stage.

 

 This location is where I wanted to put the brick patio. At the time of this picture we just had this wall of the house painted and planted the new flower bed.  If you notice to the right is a big tree stump where we had to take down another tree.

 

 So first things first, we spray painted a big circle and rented a sod cutter.

We had to get our money's worth out of the sod cutter rental so we took this area along side the deck out too. And see all the gravel pathway? I never liked that gravel so it became the base for my new patio which means I needed to come up with a new pathway...another project!

And somehow this pond ended up in the back of the pickup on a trip to Home Depot. Talk about an impulse buy! Most people buy a stick of gum on the way out of the check stand. We bought a pond! And another "project!"

This is where I started to get off track from the original patio plan. When I realized it would take me all summer to dig up the tree roots to make a base for the patio I decided to go up instead. And then I found some interesting shaped pavers and fell in love with concrete stain.

Somehow it has evolved into this. A giant sun pattern. I found some Mexican pebble stones that I plan on using in the gaps of the bricks and blocks. And I will eventually be putting in a stone mosaic in the center. I have been inspired by the stone mosaic work from Jeffrey Bale and hope to do something that is a fraction as cool as his work.

This is the current stage of the pond. I still have lots of work to do with plants, ground cover, etc.

 

This is part of the new pathway area which is actually about finished but I will save the pictures for later.

Another picture of the pathway area in progress.

This is a picture of our pitbull Peaches in a pink tutu in case you have never seen a pitbull in a pink tutu.

 And this is the new fencing we put in this spring to keep the pitbull with the pink tutu out of the flowerbeds along with her little obsessive compulsive sidekick Dinga.

To liven up this wall (like neon yellow wasn't enough) I painted some shutters purple and added Mexican tiles. I also added the metal and clay pot window planters. I will be planting some easy to care for succulents to these in the future.

So now I have documentation of where my spring, summer and fall of 2011 has gone, in between starting a new business (more about that later). I am far from done. I still have to finish the patio, the pond, the pathway and the side of the deck area. And then light it all up so it can be enjoyed at night too. As you can see, this is why I haven't posted much lately and will probably not post for awhile after this. But I really do enjoy sharing when I have the chance so when I have an area done I will give an update. Thanks for not giving up on me!