Its funny how you convince yourself by watching others do things on TV that you can do it too. Thats the way Ive been the past few years until my wife told me I was either going to do something with the yard or she would hire someone to do it. I decided I better get cracking!

Luckily I knew someone from a local organization that was an experienced landscape designer and my wife agreed to use part of the money we had saved to hire him. Since we wanted to do most of the work ourselves, he helped us by creating a design that we could pull off with some help from friends and family.

After listening to what we wanted and how we would like to function in our yard, together we came up with a great layout and plan that we felt we could pull off. This hardest part was the large patio out back and we did hire then to help for a day to get the rock laid and finished correctly. Other than that, we pretty much did the entire yard.

What really helped was that we were able to get some of the larger features and garden structures in kit form. They came pre-drilled and ready to put together. We were able to get an arbor that framed the entrance into our yard from the front and a pergola that shades a part of our patio. We placed a beautiful teak bench underneath to create a great sitting area.

Its amazing how many options there are for flowerbeds. We went with raised garden beds for a couple of reasons; they can be put anywhere and theyre really pretty and easy to care for. The plus was they also came in kit form and was a breeze to put together.

Of course, my favorite thing is the gas grill we bought and put on the patio and the shed to store all the lawn and garden tools and equipment. My wife and her mother have had a blast finding the garden dcor to place all around the place.

Once we were finished, the only thing we didnt get was a greenhouse, which we were hoping to be able to purchase but came up a little short and decided that we would wait until next year. Then we got a delivery call and it was the EasyGrow 6 x 8 Greenhouse that we had wanted. Needless to say, we were thrilled!

I now look out over our beautiful yard at the flowers and vines crawling up the trellises, the beds starting to bloom and vegetables peeking trough the soils and realize what a great yard I have; one to be extremely proud of and we did the majority of it ourselves. Now all we have to do is enjoy it!

Posted under greenhouses