Shed

Back in January we constructed a shed in the backyard. We bought a vinyl one from Costco, and it's roughly 7.5' by 9.0' We had to make a pea-gravel foundation to raise the structure several inches above the grass; we had to make a foundation anyway, since the poured foundation that was in the backyard was not level and damaged. We built a wooden frame out of 2 x 4s and placed it on top of the bad foundation. Then we poured pea-gravel into the empty frame and leveled the whole.

Front of shed:



Side of shed:




Inside of shed:





Once we built the shed, we filled it with all the gardening supplies from the garage. We then cleaned out the garage and installed a tool bench, and a tool rack. Unfortuantely we forgot to take pictures during the construction process, but it was a fairly easy job.

The tool bench with miter saw and tool rack:







Having built a shed, we then started thinking about what would be the easiest way to mow around it. After talking with my mom we decided to build a "porch" in front of the doors, and then make a gravel bed all around the edges. The gravel bed is something we know we should have done before - it will better anchor the foundation by providing support from the outside to keep everything in place.

The porch part was a little time consuming. Nate killed most of the glass where we planned to lay the pavers two months ago with Roundup. Then we pulled away the dead grass and moved the dirt/mud around to make it angle away from the shed. Once that was close, we added some sand and placed the pavers. We worked on two pavers at a time, from one door to the edge, and then from the other door to the edge.

Dead grass:



Pavers set out on the grass:





Placing the pavers:





Leveling:







Aftwards we placed sand on the top and I swept it into the cracks. The sand was somewhat wet, and I've found that it needs a couple of applications to settle all the way between the cracks. We are happy with the result.









We still need to finish the edge next to the shed, and fill that with gravel. I'll add those pictures once we've finished the project.

Not a project: Our new dog Jill!

Jill is the new addition to the Williams house. She's a 6-year-old "Terrier Mix" (in quotes because that is the least helpful description I can imagine) that we adopted from the Houston SPCA about three weeks ago. Nate and I are convinced that she's the nicest dog ever, as she doesn't bark, is affectionate and likes to play and cuddle, doesn't have an aggressive bone in her stout body, and behaves better than most people. She looks like a fox 80% of the time, especially her tail, and officially stole my heart when she learned how to give me a high five.

Et cetera: Fence, Part III

Sorry for the extended silence on this blog. I got busy with finishing my proper school, and then have been occupied with setting up my internship. And we've both been busy working on projects, and usually at the end of a day we just fall asleep and don't have the energy to combine the pictures and write some text. But, after taking a few breaths this week, I decided that we could at least post a lot of pictures. And here we go!

A month or so ago we finally had the majority of our fence replaced. We've been really happy with the results.

The fence posts:







Dead fence:


The completed fence:









The whole fence job went really smoothly, and we're happy with the results. No more dogs running into our backyard to poop! And the neighbors are staying out as well. The only thing is, Tonya and Shanna and Rob have been interested in how much the pool neighbors (whose names we discovered are Donna and Joseph) paid for the section of fence that we share - if they even paid at all. Now, in a previous post I mentioned how everyone had badmouthed these neighbors, and to be honest, we didn't have much of a problem informing them that we were getting the work done, and they paid about 80% of their half. That's fine by me. But, Rob called last night and asked me if Donna and Joseph had paid anything for the fence. I said they paid for some of it and left it at that. However, Rob was very, very emotional and angry, and I hope I didn't agitate him by my answer. I think he's very upset that we got paid, and he didn't. It's a messed up situation, and I wish my neighbors would talk our their issues with each other rather than all this snipping about each other to Nate and me. Bad neighbors!

We also did more work on the front bed. We've decided the outline for the stones, making the front yard a little easier to mow, and have been steadily hauling away dirt from the built-up bed to the backyard. A couple of weekends ago my family visited and my mom helped up break apart the soil on the section near the driveway, and we got the soil low enough that we could plant some lilies of the Nile and caladium. We also got several trees from Lowe's for 50% off the original price. We planted a Jane magnolia in the front yard:





The Jane magnolia:


In the backyard we planted two gem magnolias and a pink dogwood. We also found a hibiscus tree at Kroger for $5, and planted it near the fence as well.

Dogwood:


Magnolia:


Hibiscus:

With bloom!


Our garden has been doing so great! We've used some green onions, and had the most delicious tomato in our BLTs. It's nice to just visit the garden when I want green onions, or basil, or sage, or cilantro. I have had to moved some things out of the herb spiral, though, because the squirrels were enjoying them too much. Who knew squirrels had such a thing for mint and cilantro? They don't seem to like the sage, rosemary, or oregano as much, although I think they've been sampling the thyme and spinach. Not enough to destroy the plants, though.

Arugala:


Basils (sweet and peppermint) and pineapple sage:


Onions!


Cilantro:


Tomato plant:



Finally, we've been finding lots of peculiar things as we've dug up our yard to remove/plant things.

Over a hundred (and likely over two hundred) oyster shells found underneath some photinias:


Nate with the remains of a post that was next to the slab for the shed:



A few random pictures that I'll throw in since this is practically a picture post:

The Canna lilies by the dining room window:


Pictures from when it was floody in the street:






Front bed:


Shed foundation (right-side yard):


Back patio:


Front yard:


Our poor garden got flooded out. After everything settled down, we redid the soil in the garden (since we now knew the low spots), and then planted the spinach and onions, as well as the basils.