We finally got started on our backyard makeover! If you want to see the whole plan for the yard you can read my previous post here. The first big task we took on was building out the planter boxes. These planters will line a large portion of the the fence line and will contain bamboo to create more privacy in the yard. While a seemingly simple project, to do it all the ‘right’ way definitely takes a little longer but is so worth it!
The planter boxes themselves were actually really easy to build and only took 30 minutes to put each one together. (I’ll have a full tutorial on how we created the planters soon!) However, the prep work for where the planters will live within the yard took a bit more work. Below you can see how this area started out.
The grass had outgrown its cedar edging barrier that had been there before we moved in, and was also covered in weeds. So to start, we sprayed weed killer over the whole area where the planters will sit. Mars used an electric edger to create a line where we needed to remove about 6 inches of grass to make space for the planters to sit. We then leveled this area out by removing the excess grass, dirt and weeds. This part took the longest just because leveling out a large area is hard work! Thankfully, my husband did most of that and Luna helped too 🙂
After we had the area clear and level we laid down landscape fabric to create a weed barrier. Then we added metal landscape edging to the perimeter of the grass. We debated what type of edging to do for a while and finally settled on the metal. It looks a lot nicer than the plastic type and gives you a really nice clean polished edge. We did have to search around a bit to find a Home Depot that had them in stock but I think the end result was totally worth it! After we got the edging laid we poured your basic gravel over the entire landscaped cloth area. Then we arranged the planters on top, evenly spaced.
This part of the backyard project took us two weekends to complete. We built all the planters one weekend, and then prepped the space and installed them the following weekend. But now we have a bit of a waiting game. We want to allow the planters to dry out a bit more before we apply a clear coat so we have about 2 weeks to go before that can happen. But after that we will finally be able to finish these out with soil and bamboo!
Rather than have a CRAP TON of soil delivered into our driveway that we then would so happily have to wheelbarrow and shovel into each planter, we found a company than can pretty inexpensively come out and blow all the soil into the boxes! Thank god. It will save SO much time and work…that I really didn’t want to do 🙂
Slowly but surely our vision for our little backyard oasis is coming together and I couldn’t be happier. Maybe we actually will have it 100% done in time for my 30th birthday…we’ll see 😉
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