"BEFORE" and maybe "HALFWAY" ?

I've been working on the yard....

FOREVER.

And I've decided to share the awfulness of it.

But I could not find any "BEFORE" photos, when it was REALLY awful.

Only when it was just plain AWFUL.

So maybe if you try really hard, you can imagine an outdoor space

with an enclosed backyard area.

A tall privacy fence that I had made of discarded wood of varying colors.

Here's a photo of it covered in snow. 

Snow makes it look better, more clean.

There's crazy little Ralphie, just before jumping into the tree.

(I don't want to talk about him, that makes me sad.)

Here's a good ugly photo.

Not sure why I took that except maybe to show the tops of the trees?

Tall trees arching over from the neighbors yard to meet my huge Weeping Willow.

Those formed a shady spot where the ground was pounded down to dirt and only weeds like creeping charlie attempted to grow.

While this formed a private place away from prying eyes, 

it also refused to let the sunshine in.

And then of course the Weeping Willow was starting to die.

One huge limb came down on my house.

and it was just a matter of time before the rest would come crashing on my or the neighbors house.

Do these poor photos help you to imagine the awfulness?

Here's the bottom of the backyard, behind the patio area.

Photos from last year where you can see many of the limbs and smaller trees propped up that I had cut down.

It's actually much steeper than these pictures portray.

Another photo from another angle.

Just to the left of the tree in the middle, the hill drops sharply and has ridges and there's a hole dug in the middle of it and I think some creature lives in there. I told that to the neighbor man and he came over and peered into it.

This was before it was waist deep in wild weeds.

"Yep, there might be a groundhog or something living in there.." he said.

As he poked around, "Nothing right now but..." and then we started talking about the deer that he had seen in the yard early one morning.

I've never seen deer in MY yard but in the winter there are tracks running through it.

Anyway...I KNOW there are not any snakes down there.

They are not allowed in my yard.

So, I'm slowly clearing it. I stomp around and make noise and pull up stuff and then I've sprayed the whole area with weed and grass killer.

I'm also laying down heavy cardboard and topping it with mulch.

On the hill, I'm doing section by section.

Clearing and putting rose bushes on the borders and then hostas.

It sounds random but I do have a plan.

I do not have an AFTER because I'm not there yet.

But I do have HALFWAY photos.

The neighbors trees are gone.

The Weeping Willow is gone.

The tall fence is gone.

I took it apart and built another closer around the patio yard.

Leaving a lot of the yard open.

A new fence is in place but still a work in progress.

I've decided to cut it down more on the other side facing the lower backyard.

Slightly taller than this side.

I want it halfway as tall between this and the back fence.

So that I can put more flower boxes and things on it so that visually it will look as tall as the back one.

Does that make sense? I might not be explaining that very well.

But the back one needs to be HIGH between my neighbor on the OTHER side and me.

(Rowdy boys and dogs that might be able to see them type of problem there.)

I'm working to get it as I see it in my minds eye,

perfected but not to perfection.

I only put on one coat of FENCE & BARN paint. 

While I would love bright white, it would not flow with my faded white house.

I've decided to embraced the cottage look and go with shabby chic.

Make it quaint and quirky with a little bit of Mod thrown in.

The stump where the Weeping Willow is currently being used as a platform for flowers.

I've told that if I keep pouring weed/grass killer on it, that eventually it die and I can hack up it's remains.

(Sounds like a Fall project to me.)

Here you can see the flowers have grown and I've planted pink roses among them.

I primed and painted little Dollar Store window box planters

and attached them to the top of the fence

I got the bird houses at a Art Fair for $5. and I've painted them white  but I will also eventually be painting accent colors on those.

On the fence area directly behind all this, the one that divides the yards, I have plans on painting some sort of design on it or maybe just painting a HUGE painting and weatherproofing it and hanging it off the fence.

Yep, Quirky, Folk Arty...I'm just going with it.

anyway...this is where I'm at right now...

with a long way to go....

and I haven't even shown you my raised vegetable garden or the big flowerbed running the length of the driveway and down the fence on the other side or my front yard or parkway/boulevard/road verge thing!

So much to do and so little time...