~ Small Space Gardening ~ Kitchen Courtyard Before & After

It's done!

When you saw this picture last, the work on the new garden area was just getting under way. This was before, which doesn't seem so bad right here.

There were a few reasons for a complete makeover, but the one thing that started it all, one of the most important reasons, was the need to fence it in completely because Cody Pup was (is) such an escape artist and we live on a corner with traffic on one side. Since Cody thinks running as fast as he can without looking first is great fun, it was scary to think he might get out the door by accident, or by his planning.

Also the ground had become lower towards the house which is not a good thing. So all the planted area closest to the house had to be dug out, and the dirt moved and leveled better and draining towards the the gravel pathway.


The second big reason was just the simple fact of wanting it to be looking really good again. We took apart the landscape stone wall on the berm and rebuilt it. Roots and settling over the years had made it no longer level, and it just bugged me enough to fix it. Not a big change, lots of work, but I'm happy we did it.

We added a second archway to mimic the one that was towards the front of the house. Then added gates to each archway.

There also was a French drain under the gravel path and it needed to be redone after the several years it had been there. This was a big job, taking out the old one, moving most of the stones, and re-digging the trench and gravel pathway. So before we knew it, we were in the middle of really taking almost everything out and starting from scratch. Picking up all those pebble rocks used previously was as much work as digging up any plants. But Sweet Hubby just got to it, and never complained that I was undoing and redoing something .... again.

It's fenced in on all sides now with new gates at each end. Just perfect for when Cody wants to come out and help me garden. He's great at digging, fetching the plastic pots the plants come in, but not too good at planting anything yet.

See Y'all Soon~

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