Thinking about the Backyard

Before winter comes and forces us into a few months of forced hibernation, we've been thinking about getting at least some initial work done in our backyard. At the very least we need to put up a privacy fence, so we can further distance ourselves from our least favorite neighbor. We are allowed to put in a 6 foot fence and right now we are thinking bamboo, but we'll see what happens when the pricing comes in. Whatever it is it will be better than the 4 foot chain link shared fence we have right now.

Our backyard is separated into two sections—the stairs up from the sunroom lead you to a small concrete covered area that then has two steps up to a grassy area with one diseased peach tree. We are going to have that tree removed and are thinking of doing an Asian themed garden instead of your typical grass yard. With a bamboo fence we might line the perimeter with some sort of fast-growing, thick shrub to provide even more privacy from the neighbors. We are thinking of doing lots of little shrubs with little rocks all over the ground. We would then use the large blue stone slabs we already have to make a path. We might even want to somehow cover half of that yard area for even more privacy. I don't know, it's all a mystery at this point.

Whatever happens the fence is paramount and the tree and that stupid metal ladder are coming down ASAP. We will also fence around the AC units to make them less unsightly. Beyond that I'm open to ideas from the peanut gallery as gardening is not really my forte.

Ugly backyard…whatever we do it will look nicer than this…

For the concrete area we plan on tiling on top of this and maybe tiling the wall sections as well. Some sort of faux stone looking tile…

Here is the silly arbor that the Building Department made us put in.

Here is the ugly top we are going to put on it temporarily

Eventually we want a nicer top and will move it out to the grassy area and attach a bench swing—fun!

Comments

[modernemama]

Wow, blank canvas for a kick ass yard.
Here's a couple of inspiration projects from the BBC. First an inner city garden:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/des_ins/leaf_pages/22.shtml
and a rooftop garden:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/design/des_ins/leaf_pages/60.shtml
And one from this year's Chelsea Flower Show:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/flower_shows/chelsea_2007/smallgardens_suber.shtml
Enjoy.

[Tijmen Stam / IIVQ]

Hi, Over the past few days I've read all of your blog and I must say: that is one enormous achievement you've done! Someday, I'm going to do something like that as well, but right now I think my appartment in a high-rise building is worth less than just your renovation budget :-) As for the garden: when the renovation is over and the DoB inspectors have all disapproved, can't you just cut down the arbor? What is the rationale behind having a minimum covered area in a "shared" garden? And I see you haven't cut down the ladder in the back of your garden yet :-P What does it lead to? Stairway to heaven?

[dana]

thanks for the suggestions Modern Mama! I will check those out...

Tijmen--thanks for the compliments! We could cut down the arbor, and that was the original plan, but we decided to make it beefy enough to hold a bench swing. The need for the covered area in the backyard is completely irrational, thus there is no rationalizing it. They seem to have forgotten that this isn't a shared backyard, but at that point in the plans approval process we thought it easier to submit to this ridiculous arbor than argue. In the long run it wasn't too much of a hassle and the DoB has asked for crazier things.

The ladder is an old clothes drying rack that would allow people on every floor to hang a line out to dry things. It's completely unnecessary now so we do want to cut it down, but it's at the bottom of Alex's list right now.

[Tijmen Stam / IIVQ]

A swing is cool! Haha I see I wrote "DoB inspectors have all disapprove" - off course I meant disappeared :-P And when they have disappeared, you should make the second (ugly) stair into the basement into a cupboard! Yesterday we started to move out books and cabinets to do a complete overhaul of our bedroom :-)