Backyard Evolution - Watching Grass Grow

So you might will call me crazy when I tell you that having your own patch of green lawn is da bomb!

Seriously though, it is.

Remember when I showed you the condition of our backyard when we moved in to our new home in 2011?

as it was in 2011

Skip forward two-ish years and we are now proud owners of one seriously green patch of grass...

Gah! totally love it, I could look at it all day.  (Ignore the surrounding garden beds, they are a work in progress!).

Our yard has gone from, pavers & rocks, to dirt & dust and now to the greenest of green...

Tell me you don't think it looks ah-mazeballs!?

I must confess we had a professional come do all the prep work & lay the lawn but it was money well spent.

Mr Nutt & I have spent numerous hours, since it was laid in mid March, just sitting on our deck with a cup of coffee watching the grass grow - literally.

So you might say we are chuffed... royally chuffed... and we are.  Seeing our lawn dream come to fruition means we are one step closer to finishing our dream garden.

We are now on the look out for a water feature to sit in front of the office window... I'm eyeing off this one from Masters Home Improvement.

Tropez Urn Water Feature

We're also out and about looking at different types of rocks for our pathways.  Mr Nutt has always been set on tumbled sandstone and we are both in agreement that the rocks below are fit for the job.

Slowly but surely the yard is getting there.

Until the next instalment of our backyard evolution I give you this...

Backyard Evolution... The continuance

You might remember a few weeks back my first post on the evolution of our backyard? If not, I forgive you, but click here to bring yourself up to speed.

Anyhoo, Mr Nutt and I talked and discussed, and talked some more about our overall plans for the yard and it was a fore drawn conclusion that we needed to make the most of the outlook over the back fence.

This again meant that for the greater good, some garden space and plants had to be sacrificed.  Bye bye grevillea and unidentified deciduous tree in the way of our master plan - a deck.

Learning from our first experience with stump removal, we called in the experts for the next one but still did all the back breaking labour to level the ground ready for the deck, including digging not one, but six post holes to save on labour costs - I repeat... ka-razy!

Okay so all my pics show Mr Nutt doing a lot of work... I helped, I promise!

Enlisting the services of a local tradie, the deck was complete in a day.

There is still plenty more to do in the way of our vision for the yard, but progress is progress and you can't ask for more than that.

More colour from our garden...

Backyard Evolution - The beginning

When Mr Nutt and I purchased our home in May 2011, we inherited a modest little backyard but unfortunately, plonked right in the middle, was a giant tree surrounded by lots of pavers & rocks.

When the landscaping was first done it would have looked fantastic, but trees grow and the roots of this one were heading right toward the foundation of the house.  It had to go.

So, shortly after moving in, Mr Nutt got cracking with some good ol' fashioned elbow grease to bring this baby down! (don't get me wrong, I'm a tree hugging hippie, but this tree had to be sacrificed for the greater good)

The late site foreman was ever watchful during the process. How I miss him =(

By the end of the weekend the tree was gone and all that remained was a humongous pile of branches and a stump.

Having the tree gone really opened up the space, just compare the before and after shots.

Anyhoo another laborious weekend later and the raised garden bed was removed and the stump exposed.  Site foreman still sleepily watching on.

We eventually got the stump out and all that was left to do now was to unearth the roots that had worked their way toward the house and remove those too.  A painstaking process, all done by hand might I add - talk about ka-razy!

Stay tuned for more of our backyard evolution, but in the meantime, it's not all dirt and mud in our garden...