From dirt to a pallet wood walkway in the garden

We had the most fantastic past weekend weather wise! Which meant it was a great gardening day to continue on the massive front yard project.

So... what did we all do?

Ripped it out

Lotsa ripping out was to be had by all. Miss S helped by wheeling burnt out shrubs to a neighbouring burn pile.

Cut it up

In order to create a new shape for the flowerbeds, a half moon edger, a generous neighbour Rudy and sons Lucas and Kenny, plus their trailer did the trick!

Cutting new shapes is pretty easy if you break it down.

How to edge

1. lay out a garden hose to your desired shape

2. cut in small sections, much like cutting a sheet cake

3. dig it up!

The scraps went to another generous' neighbour's place. She needed clean landfill. Perfect! Thanks Francis!

turf tip: turn freshly cut turf upside down in any compost or area you desire more fill. It will eventually turn right back to soil again.

Here you can spot a glimpse of the curvy shapes we created. And then we shuffled a few plants around. 

This is going to be one amazing before and after transformation.

Design theory: curved edges are more pleasing to the eye outdoors because nature has no straight lines.

And then we...

Top soiled it

No messin' around here. We ordered up 4 yards for a truck to deliver. 

I squealed when I saw the truck backing in! On the menu was a top soil mixed with a mulch and feed so your plants will be healthy and happy all summer long. Dark and delicious!

 Better than diamonds, girls! Better than diamonds.

I'm clearly low maintenance...

Ok, well, maybe not to my hard working neighbours...

Beautiful blank canvases...

... to be had at every turn, just begging for some artful additions.

You'll see what I did with this space at the bottom of this post.

EVERYTHING got topped up, including the backyard garden.

Thanks so much Rudy, Lucas, Kenny, Cody and Sento!

And then I...

Pruned it

Nice hat, tree. 

Lots and lots of pruning on all kinds of trees and shrubs.

While my preference is more of the shaggy willow type look for this unique tree, it grows so fast and out of control it's better to give it a good clean hack to start, then let it soften up naturally again.

The funnest part is coming right up, because I also got down to true blue DIY business and 

Created

I couldn't wait! I had to make something cool. These reclaimed boards were sitting around that were collected some time ago. They were nearly thrown out during the big purge!

It pays to be a packrat. :)

A level pathway was dug lower than the driveway, then the boards were placed.

Yes! It's a pathway from driveway to the sitting bench in the yard. Cool, huh?

I was always jumping over the soil to get to the yard so the removal of a buncha plants made this little pathway possible.

The boards are just sitting loose as I want them easy to lift for carefree weeding. The weight of walking on them appears to embed them just enough to hold them in place.

I started adding some rocks to work with the elevation of the sides. Perfect spot for mini rock garden plants I'm thinking...

And here's the finished result. It's working out perfectly! The wood is just high enough to clear any water and the planks are indeed staying in place. Love it! It's not a long term solution as the wood will naturally deteriorate against the soil, but it's easy to replace.

What cool little feature do you have in your own garden that you love?

All yard 2011 posts to date.

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