A Repost of Sorts: Constructing a Garden

[NOTE: This is a more detailed rewrite of a post from August 13 last year.]

I don't like the term "garden rooms" but I do use the concept in the layout of the garden. The first things that defined our backyard garden layout were the deck, the patio, and three trees. The deck had to be in a certain place because of the back exit. The patio naturally filled the remaining "floor space" at the back of the house.


We started out with a natural wood deck, and never thought of staining it. However, a couple of bad seasons with paper wasps chewing on the naked wood to build their nearby nests convinced us that staining was the way to go. We chose an opaque stain in a blue-grey colour ("Heritage Blue" by Behr). This has turned out really well with both the patio brick (2002) and the natural flagstone (2003, 2005) that were eventually installed around it.



2002

Our first thought of a GARDEN was to plant three trees (2002): a Deborah maple close to the deck for shade and privacy; a camperdown elm farther back on the east side as an interesting ornamental; and a devil's claw willow somewhat near the back property line on the west side of the garden. The devil's claw willow was chosen for its interesting curly branches. Little did we know how fast it would grow from a sapling to a full-size tree!



2003

After joining in with the neighbours to install the back fence, the next thing for us was to hire a landscaper to complete the transformation from boring slope to beautiful "garden bones" by installing strategically placed armour stone. First they killed all the grass, then brought in loads of rocks and dirt, and finally they planted a small amount of new grass. They also created a flagstone path around the deck, and in the NW corner a level patch of grit on which we could get our new wooden shed installed.


With that, the landscapers were finished. Then, doing the work ourselves, we laid down some mulch (five cubic yards -- they still sell it in yards, even though this is Canada and it should be metres) and started planting. The planting hasn't stopped since, though we are running out of room now so it's slowed down a lot. And because of planting a lot of evergreens and groundcover, we no longer need five cubic yards of mulch in spring when we put it down. We can get by with three, maybe three-and-a-half yards.


We also laid some flagstone stepping stones (just plunked down and rearranged year by year however we feel like it) to define some of the area that was meant to be kept free for walking rather than planted on; and by early Fall 2003, after getting the shed installed and building the arbour bench, the garden looked like this:

Photos belong to kbgardenblog.blogspot.com and may not be borrowed without attribution.
(I know no one would want these photos, but still.)

The evolution of the side path (a continuation of the flagstone path around the deck and along the west side of the house) is covered step-by-step in the August archives.