Reclaiming My Backyard: Turf Wins
Last week, I shared with you some of the changes we’ve made to our yard for the future of our family. We love our home, and with the help of our landscape architect, we’ve come to love it even more now that we are making the most of our outdoor space.
With lots of convincing from Susanne Fyffe, our landscape architect, we also decided to turf the backyard. I went into the project adamantly against this, as my father has always prided himself on maintaining his grass to a level of prestige, and I had always carried that mindset, too. But despite this, I can now admit to loving the tuft. The turf allowed us to create the dream patio with trellis accents. It also means no mud in the backyard and, thus, no mud in my home. Bingo! It also means in the dead of winter, I can look out onto my green backyard and maybe feel the hope of warmer days. And lastly, it allowed us to install a small three-hole putting green for Geoff. Everyone wins.
Like many in our area, we also struggled with a damp yard and grass. So in the areas that were not turfed, we regraded, planting water-loving trees and shrubs in the dampest spots to absorb the water. Specifically, we planted several types of Hydrangea, white Azaleas, and Boxwoods. In the front yard, we took a water drainage ditch and installed water-loving plants to create a rain garden. No more standing water and mosquitoes, and no longer is there a muddy ditch for Paisley to climb into. Another personal win!
We also added a flagstone walkway to our front door for a more welcoming approach. We expanded the mulch beds at the front and side of the home so they would have two layers and be even across the front of the house.
Huge thank you to Susanne Fyffe of Fyffe Landscape Architecture for helping us reclaim our space to get the most out of it. Now, I can picture our home bringing us into the future with room for children to play and for our family to enjoy.
