Random crap with Uno.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, the chimera's been on google since it was built. But then, he was in the front yard 24/7 from the time he was built till he died last year, so that's no surprise

Used to have Charr in the satellite image, too. 

I had to copy/paste to get the link to work right -I think- but a satellite view of the treetops covering your back yard is incredibly unhelpful.

Gives you an idea how little space I really have to play with. 

[Buster's Uncle]

It is indeed not much space, sir.

-As a matter of fact, when I first stayed with Mylochka in Texas in the 90s in my renfair days, she was renting a decent house - with a backyard the size of a football field.  The house she owned in the more recent stint was nicer, but her parties missed that huge back yard...

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, it's appropriately sized to my level of want-to-do-yard-work.  And we're here discussing how I'm turning more of it into non-yard work needed paths

[Buster's Uncle]

Mowing the edges of all that non-yard-work-needed concrete being a problem, of course, unless you turn it into a parking lot...

The football field took a while to mow, but it was just back and forth with nothing to complicate the job...

[Unorthodox]

I could get behind a total zen rock garden once the kids are grown past the horseplay on the grass. 

Or rather a complete xeriscaped space. 

The gardens are the perfect example.  Sure, they take some work in spring and fall, but during summer (when it's 100 degrees out), just water and watch. 

I'm not opposed to ALL yard work, just dispise that required by a lawn in the desert. 

[Spacy]

If brick is an option ($$), I would say put in a brick patio/fire pit near the shed on the back right side.  Open so out from under the trees, and good sight lines, and you can put things (chairs, prongs, etc.) into the shed easy.  Can also easily tie into your future walk down that side and give you a nice future staging area for halloween.  The doors to the shed itself, with the dark room, can easily be added in (Didn't you once have a couple skulls with LED eyes in there, otherwise basically black emptiness?) 

The nice thing about brick is that if they do get pushed up (tree roots) or down (like mine do cause I park on them) they are easy to reset.  They are also thick enough that they don't look like the cheep patio stones (which, are nice, don't get me wrong, but something that everybody thinks of as cheep even if they weren't) and last a long long time. 

I would avoid concrete in areas that you know tree roots will interfere with, as it is almost like tossing money away when it does crack and cause trip hazards, or even flooding issues as it can redirect water into directions you don't want it to flow in.  Stamped concrete is even worse, as there is almost 0 chance you will be able to match the stamp well with patches 10 years down the line, so you are stuck with large sections to replace instead of small ones.  Oh, and watch the stamps if you do that for your walkways as some get slippery - and you don't want that. 

[Unorthodox]

If brick is an option ($$), I would say put in a brick patio/fire pit near the shed on the back right side.  Open so out from under the trees, and good sight lines, and you can put things (chairs, prongs, etc.) into the shed easy.  Can also easily tie into your future walk down that side and give you a nice future staging area for halloween.  The doors to the shed itself, with the dark room, can easily be added in (Didn't you once have a couple skulls with LED eyes in there, otherwise basically black emptiness?) 

The nice thing about brick is that if they do get pushed up (tree roots) or down (like mine do cause I park on them) they are easy to reset.  They are also thick enough that they don't look like the cheep patio stones (which, are nice, don't get me wrong, but something that everybody thinks of as cheep even if they weren't) and last a long long time. 

I would avoid concrete in areas that you know tree roots will interfere with, as it is almost like tossing money away when it does crack and cause trip hazards, or even flooding issues as it can redirect water into directions you don't want it to flow in.  Stamped concrete is even worse, as there is almost 0 chance you will be able to match the stamp well with patches 10 years down the line, so you are stuck with large sections to replace instead of small ones.  Oh, and watch the stamps if you do that for your walkways as some get slippery - and you don't want that. 

The shed will need to be redone in the 5-10 year range as is.  My only misgiving about a patio back the one tree is awful close, and if you come out the 'side' of the shed, it's cutting into the garden.  Not a deal breaker, mind you, just something to note.  That area of the yard gets awful swamped in a rainstorm as well. 

Bricks/pavers, I'd rather do flagstone if I have my druthers. 

I think you're remembering an old test years ago for the yaga baba fence.  There were some glowing skulls back then.  It was never used for Halloween. 

[Rusty Edge]

A Stonehenge themed fire pit, appeals to me, whatever the scale.

I always like to have something in the corners and around the posts & trees to make the mowing easier, that is, no trimming. Day lilies inter-planted with daffodils provide some nice color over a long season, and they also suppress grass, so there's less need to weed. The drawback is the expense, although...well I don't know if they both over-winter in Ogden or not.   Maybe that approach won't fly without digging them up every fall & replanting in the spring, which doesn't save much work after all. Anyway, as the patch grows you can transplant to other locations.

I once rented a house that had a blueberry perimeter hedge in the back yard. I loved it, but that probably doesn't play in Utah because of soil PH and drainage.

I'm all for growing food and flowers instead of grass. I'd be sorely tempted to raise peaches in a place without peach tree borers! ;-)

[hEtErOdOx]

We have grapes along the fence, and the back garden is entirely food or Halloween stalk plants. The front yard has a few flowerbeds, mostly picked out by our 10 year old Flower Boss.

Thanks for all your ideas, it's starting to give me a clearer picture of what we might want.

[Unorthodox]

Thanks for all your ideas, it's starting to give me a clearer picture of what we might want.

It's working...

[Unorthodox]

I'm all for growing food and flowers instead of grass. I'd be sorely tempted to raise peaches in a place without peach tree borers! ;-)

Peach tree borer is my 'the one that got away' story for my collection.  Which is what made me start to actually study bugs instead of just catch them.   We do have them here.  To get GOOD peaches here takes a lot of work, and usually chemicals for the pests.  I try to avoid chemicals for the most part, aside from the occasional spider spray that hEt insists upon.  Even THERE, the number of spider predators in the yard is growing quite well to where I see a balance coming. 

Talking about the garden side.  At one point there was a dream to do a channel buried under the walkway to pipe fog underneath. 

recognizing the impracticality of such a thing, what WOULD be pretty awesome is a pergola down the walkway. 



I'd have to think long and hard about the potential of some climbing plants for the thing (though honestly, mini pumpkins would work just fine), having such a structure there would open a lot of possibilities outside of a permanent plant covering. 

[Unorthodox]

Just sayin'

[Buster's Uncle]

...Since the Ivy Gate project back in Texas, Mylochka and I have been talking about doing something with muscadines here in America.  She has about half her backyard fenced in as dog habitat, and while muscadine isn't as fast-growing or pretty as the weedy vine I worked with in Texas, it even grows wild a little around here, and -this is key- you get some nice thick-skinned grapes out of the deal.  The idea would be to grow them along the chain link fence, of course, and encourage them to spread and climb and do something with poles and wire for height and ultimately form an arbor tunnel walkway around the outside of the fence w/ a cobblestone path sheltered from sun and light rain.

Since hEt mentioned fence grapes, and I bet she hasn't seen any of my Ivy Gate project posts, and y'all are looking for landscaping ideas, I'll go find the Ivy Gate thread and bump it...

[Unorthodox]

There's a joke that we can't own a house unless there's grapes.  They are not there by choice, and virginia creeper is strangling them. 

They fall into the "I really hate the yardwork" category, more because we don't EAT the grapes, so cleanup is problematic every fall.  I do like the VINES for my work.  But they grow too slow to be completely useful and mostly just fight against me on what I want in the garden.   

On the surface, a wisteria tunnel would seem ideal...but would likely get out of hand. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Yah.  The Carolina Moonseed I worked with in Texas would be better ornamentally for several reasons, but it's really invasive and unkillable and I was making a virtue of those qualities with a weed we were stuck with already.  Muscadines don't risome all over creation, they produce A LOT in this climate when mature, won't require a lot of maintenance with the overgrown look Mylochka tends to go for, and she most decidedly intends to eat the grapes.

hEt, that thread I bumped is titled "Putting the weeds to work for us".