Garden Adventures - The Beginning

It's crazy to think, but we've been in this house over a year at this point. The first year was primarily spent on projects inside the house and, you know, all the things that make it livable. Which is good and important! But all that focus inside meant that there was very little attention given to the outside. 

Our yard is an itty-bitty baby yard - just the right size for me! Enough space to be able to have actual outside space, but not too much that keeping up with the yard work feels overwhelming. The previous owners left us with a nicely established garden, which means we have some well-timed perennials that take turns making the backyard have pops of colors starting in April and carrying all the way into June. My goal is to not kill those. However, last summer, the backyard got completely out of control. Like, it turned into an actual jungle! The sort of crazy weeds that got taller than me. I'd never seen anything like it. It was wild, in every meaning of the world. This seemed to make the bees and other pollinators happy, but it made walking through the backyard to the garage feel like running the gauntlet every time.

As a housewarming gift, we got a gift certificate for a landscaping company. Oh, how grateful I was! We called in professionals to help us tame the jungle and save our backyard from being completely engulfed by weeds and wildness. 

So much better!! I felt like I could breathe again. Also, I was determined that it should never get so out of control again. This meant that I was going to need a plan. And I do like a good project to plan! 

First step: Sketch out a visual

 By this point, it was getting to be the end of autumn and cold weather was on the horizon. Still, all this planning had me primed and ready for action! So, it seemed like a great time to set things in motion in preparation for the spring. Putting a bunch of the empty moving boxes to good use, I laid out a layer of cardboard as a weed barrier in the areas where I for sure wasn't planning to grow things.

 All set to hunker down and hibernate for the Chicago winter. And so we did.