New Lawn!

Last Friday just after dawn, a sod truck rumbled up the street and delivered two pallets of Marathon I.  For the next several hours we carried, laid, watered and placed 1,000 square feet of freshly harvested grass.  Here's how it looked when we first started:

And a little further along, maybe 2/3rds done:

Now, a week later, it's grown noticeably and is just about ready for its first cut.  After prepping the area for many months and basically living next to a dirt patch, it's amazing how dust-free the house and porch stay.  Next up? Flowers, flowers, flowers!

Back in the Yard

 It's been quite a while since I've shown more of our yard progress.  And, although we slowed down a little at the end of last fall, we did accomplish several large tasks over the last few months -- boardwalk, beach rock borders, painting...  Here's a little peek at what's moved ahead:

 The wall is officially blue! On sunny days the palms cast great shadows on the wall and orange and white flowers really pop against its brightness.

Above is a newly formed flower bed bordered by a band of beach cobbles, each handpicked  and brought home by yours truly and my faithful elf.

Here's another view of the rock border and, in the very background, the boardwalk.  The rocks continue all the way along and also serve as a place for sprinklers.  

Next up? A few sprinkler adjustments, grass, flowers, transplanting... slowly but surely it's all coming together!

New Yard Project: More Patio

I've tried to resist doing two yard project posts in a row, but I'm too excited not to today! Yesterday we had a brief break in the rain -- just long enough for the sun to come out, dry things a bit and let me snap a few pictures.  This was before all the edge stones had been cut so you can see a few bare areas above.  I'm still mystified that one asymmetrical shape can fit together like this:

See the urn at the end of the wall? That's been sitting there empty for a while, but now happily has a foxtail palm in it.  The foxtail had been in the ground but, being a palm that's a bit finicky and needs extra TLC, wasn't performing too well.  They thrive in pots and like wet soil, so it'll be much easier to care for now.  It's also going to cast pretty shadows on the patio in the summer months.

It's another rainy day today so we're on hold again.  We still need to sweep sand into the joints and stomp around to encourage it to compact down.  It's amazing how much sand it takes, usually more than you think.  After sand sweeping our next phase is the lawn area.  There are several weeds to pull and a whole lot of leveling and smoothing in the near future.

New Yard Project: Patio Progress!

The middle of last week was dedicated to moving the patio forward in several huge steps.  After spending several hours leveling our area, we spread gravel from the brickyard, leveled it as best we could and began tamping it down by hand.  Not pleased with the results, we ended up renting a power tamper that worked like a charm -- as it vibrates itself forward, it totally compacts the gravel.  See it above and how large its plate is compared with the hand tamper next to it? Here's a close up view of its handiwork:

With the area tamped and level, it was time to spread sand.  After a trip to the local brickyard for two scoops of masonry sand, we were ready to start distribution.  One of my jobs was to climb in the truck and push the sand toward the back for easy shoveling:

Spreading it was super satisfying! We could really see the patio shaping up quickly and felt like we were making major progress:

Once the sand was distributed everywhere we gave it a pass over with the power tamper:

Next up came the fun part: paver placement.  Can you believe I made six trips to Home Depot in two days to pick up loads of pavers? We chose a faux flagstone in a terracotta hue to tie in with the saltillo tiles on our porch.  These are a uniform shape that interlock and go down super easily.  It's amazing how one shape can fit together so well.

We got the majority of them placed just before a rain storm moved in.  Unfortunately, when I had a chance to take a picture it was already pouring, and hasn't let up for more than a few soggy minutes since then.  So... more photos coming soon, weather permitting :) I'm excited to show you how it looks!

New Yard Project Part 4: The Blue Wall

Next on our yard to-do list is choosing a striking wall color. We're inspired by the above photo of a blue stucco wall somewhere in the Yucatan. A bold color sure makes the palms pop! And it's almost the exact same color as the sky. Below is our wall and a few color chips. The idea is to make our palms pop, too, with the vines creating an undersea kelp effect.

What do you think? Do any of these blues look like the "the one"? After a while, they all start to look really similar.

So far we're partial to the above chip, second from the bottom.

New Yard Summer Project Part 3: Labor Day

I'm super excited to say that we've accomplished most of the major removal stuff in the yard. The big palms are all out and the old lawn is dug up! Look above, can you believe there used to be three 20 ft. queen palms grouped just behind where the wall ends?

Speaking of where the wall ends... we terraced the layers and added a handsome yellowish pot that will soon be home to a fox tail palm. Below, you can see where we marked a potential planting area.

Pretty soon we'll be placing the patio stones and I can hardly wait! We found a molded cement style that mimics flagstone at a fraction of the price (love you Home Depot!). There are several different shapes designed to fit together so we'll have fun putting the puzzle together.

New Yard Summer Project Part 2: Another Brick in the Wall

And the work continues! Our cool and cloudy weather has turned for the warmer and a mini heat wave has kept us seeking shady tasks as we continue our yard re-do. After many trips to The Home Depot for more blocks, we've continued the wall and added another curve.

The wall will wrap around about to where the large queen palm is in the shot below, then be back filled to create a second level effect. You can see there's a palm stump -- it's coming out today as soon as I finish this post. The large queen will also come out and most likely be replaced with a king palm.


Speaking of palms, we transplanted a medium sized kentia into a pot. Here is where it used to be:

And here's its new temporary home. It took almost as long to get it into the pot as it did to dig it up!

I used to have a rickety hose reel with a handle that wobbled each time I reeled the hose in. I thought a change to a hose pot might be an upgrade and was thrilled to find this handsome pot at The Home Depot for only $23.



Time to get out there and tackle that palm stump before it gets too hot!

New Yard Summer Project Part 1: Rock and Roll

I've alluded to some heavy gardening that's been going on around here lately and finally have some photos to share with you:

Above, a load of stones after being unloaded underneath our gingko tree. Each piece weight just over 20 lbs. and between loading, unloading and taking them to the wall area, each piece gets moved several times.

We chose Pavestone's Natural Impressions Flagstone in Charcola/Tan. When I pictured the perfect look for re-doing our raised flower beds, I envisioned something like this and hoped they actually existed. Needless to say I was overjoyed to find them at our local Home Depot! They have a little lip to "lock together" and stay in place, no mortar needed.

Here we've started laying the first course and stacking a few to see how they'll look.

And after a few hours progress a significant section takes shape.

Keeping things level is a must!

The old planters used to be wood planks with super straight lines. These stones are perfect for making gentle curves, like we've done near the palm above.

I'll have more to share soon, but for now I'm being called outside to work more!