Working in the great outdoors of our back yard, got my chair, got my cell phone, and the paramedics on speed dial, what could go wrong?

Lee said:
The best laid plans go awry, Murphy's law or whatever you want to call it. I mapped out a design for the back yard, first in my head, then on paper, perennial border along the fence with a cutout area for a park bench, then an area of flagstone and pea stone for a pathway, then a small raised deck allowing easy access from the back door.

The "call before you dig" man is to blame for my addled brain now having to come up with plan B. Turns out a hydro line runs right where the existing steps are. Not advisable to build a deck over a hydro line. Bummer, not happy, I do not like to think too hard.

On the happy happy flip side though, my raised veggie garden is sporting peas, beans, mesclun mix. radishes, onions and of course tomatoes and cukes. And the front yard is a remarkable transformation from what I called a muck mess to something the neighbors no longer have to nudge and giggle at.
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Your veggie garden sounds great. I have tomatoes as well and I’m hoping when I move them they survive. I plant them with fennel in between which is suppose to keep the tomato worms away. We had blue stakes come out, they marked the yard with blue paint, yard and paint is now gone. 😥
 

Mr I will get up at six in the morning, wasn’t. After working two hours alone transplanting my veggies from the front to the back I thought I saw a flying pig. Hmm, could that be, nope, just mom flying by on her broom. STAY AWAY FROM THE VIRUS, she yells. Sigh.

I thought she slept in.
 
@Lee I'm also one that deals with buried hydro cables, cable, internet and phone lines, and overhead hydro lines to the neighbours on the north side, in my backyard. Not the owner that i bought the house from, but the previous owner before her, had cleared the backyard of old overgrown trees, shrubs, perennials, leveled it and sown new grass, had cables buried. So half of the backyard, i'm restricted where i dig, and where any trees can go, so i've not planted anything, all the landscaping i've done is above ground. A little confused about the 12 x 24 cement pad that was laid off the deck and against the house and garage, over the hydro cable, love the area, has a stamped design and color in the concrete, but if there's a issue with a damaged line there, i guess the pad may have to be torn up....i hope that never happens.
 

MickaC said:
@Lee I'm also one that deals with buried hydro cables, cable, internet and phone lines, and overhead hydro lines to the neighbours on the north side, in my backyard. Not the owner that i bought the house from, but the previous owner before her, had cleared the backyard of old overgrown trees, shrubs, perennials, leveled it and sown new grass, had cables buried. So half of the backyard, i'm restricted where i dig, and where any trees can go, so i've not planted anything, all the landscaping i've done is above ground. A little confused about the 12 x 24 cement pad that was laid off the deck and against the house and garage, over the hydro cable, love the area, has a stamped design and color in the concrete, but if there's a issue with a damaged line there, i guess the pad may have to be torn up....i hope that never happens.
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Yeah, we have a small cement pad 6x4 feet in the corner of our lot against the back fence. Have no ideal why it’s there. Put our only raised garden on top of it. Everything here is buried in the front yard except cable which is not buried.
 
They added it for an extra entertainment area, it's not covering up any old cement. I guess i forgot to add feet in my post......It is 12 feet x 24 feet. Does that sound more censible now.
 
Micka, those stamped concrete patterns really are nice and low maintenance, you are lucky to have that.

I am thinking that a low level deck is the answer now with steps going down to it as the steps could be removed from the hydro area much easier than having them tear up a deck in the unlikely event there is a problem.
 
Lee, yes, i was fortunate to have that. when i bought this house, January 2016, the back yard had what i was looking, in regards to the back yard, terrace doors off the kitchen goes out to a large deck, then down to the cement pad and onto the grass. So easy....open the door and away they go into their yard. The back has a semi private fence as well. The cement pad is due for a coat of water seal, hope to do that soon.
 
Kadee46 said:
In Australia we have dial before you dig, so you hopefully don’t accidentally “find” a gas mains or sewage pipes

https://www.1100.com.au/safety-information/home-owner-information/
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Yes, Kadee46, did the call before you dig, 2016, before i started any landscaping. The only line in the front, natural gas, put in on the town's boulevard. The back, got all lines marked, hydro, internet - cable - land phone - sewer, so like i posted before, quite restricted in the back, so i plan around all that.
 
MickaC said:
Yes, Kadee46, did the call before you dig, 2016, before i started any landscaping. The only line in the front, natural gas, put in on the town's boulevard. The back, got all lines marked, hydro, internet - cable - land phone - sewer, so like i posted before, quite restricted in the back, so i plan around all that.
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Everything here is in the front except the cable tv which is overhead, I could put in an in ground pool if I wanted 😂
 
Now that we have to replant the front yard, we have looked for on clearance plants. Got more roses, about 10 perennial flowers, and 11 grasses, the flowers and grasses were regular 8.98 got them for one a piece, 5 for the roses saved over 350 dollars.

Of course, husband decided to take over. He plants the flowers along side the driveway. I don’t like flowers along side a driveway because of bees, but whatever. He plants 3 of the grasses on the other side of the driveway at the entrance next to the fence.

I keep my mouth shut during this process which, for me, is nearly impossible. I let him plant all the flowers and the 3 grasses. It’s 95 degrees outside, so between rest breaks, potty breaks, drink breaks, it takes him all afternoon. I ask him why he planted the grasses there, instead of where I asked.

Why he asks? What wrong? Hmm, I tell him maybe I’ll just let him plant the rest and then tell him. Because he has to replant everything, and I don’t like his tone. I go back in the house, but first I check out the planted flowers, hmm. The next day a not too pleasant conversation is going happen.

What‘s wrong with where you planted the grass? Blah, blah, blah. How tall does it get? Blah, blah, blah. How wide does it get? Blah, blah, blah. Hmm, so I ask; when the grass gets 4 feet tall and three/four feet wide and completely fills in and blocks the view to the street for us, and the neighbors, how do we safely back out of the driveway? Plus it’s against code to block the view.

So, he says, I should move the grass? You think? 😂

Now for those flowers.
 
Instead of planting the flowers anywhere but along side the driveway, he has planted the flowers along the driveway. Which I could live with, but there are rocks and cement pieces there, which he knew, so he’s only dug down as far as he could. This means that more than half of the roots of the flowers are above ground.

Not to mention since he wanted to plant the flowers there, my veggie garden had to be destroyed, but that’s ok. Really, it’s ok 🤬, a total waste of money, but it’s fine. I say nothing, nothing at all. Except, why are the flowers half planted with their root system above ground? Although I know why, as does he.

Blah, blah, blah, and I thought I’d see if the roots would grow. He said. What? WHAT? Where do you think the roots would grow? How do you think the roots will grow? They are above ground. There is no dirt above ground. Blah, blah, blah, I’ll throw the grasses and flowers away.

NO! You will replant them and I give detailed instructions and I watch him do it from inside of the house. It’s really hot outside. Once everything is replanted, I make sure he waters. He has to hand water cause he broke the sprinkler I just bought. Sigh.

The grasses are planted along the front of the house, the roses are planted in front of the grass, and the flowers are planted in front of the roses. It looks good. We will plant grass seed and regrow the lawn. He’s only wasted a day and killed about 6 veggie plants. Progress is being made.
 
Bought all those plants and now it’s raining, raining, and raining; can’t plant a thing. Bought the air conditioners Since it was a 100 degrees; and now it’s 37 to 45 degrees and I’ve had to put the heat on.

This is totally consistent with the story of my life. 😳
 
Working on the yard a lot and trying to get in the clearance plants we bought. Now that it’s hot, he is working less and less on the yard. Yesterday we went to Lowe’s and bought some black no dig fencing, but he had to dig as the ground is too hard to push the stakes in.

Anyway, I told him he had to do it right or he would be redoing till he did. This happens a lot, redos. He hopes I won’t notice, silly man. Finally gets the first piece in, puts the second piece in, sigh, it’s crooked. I told him to get the long level and lay it down on the ground so he keeps the fence straight. He says, the level doesn’t level that way. Huh?

He must have thought the aliens took his real wife away (or wished it was true) and left stupid wife behind. After we discuss how a level works, he agrees he should have got the level. But he doesn’t. He puts the third piece of fencing in.

Now it’s time to come inside as he works at home. I go outside and look at the fence, it gets progressively higher, so the third piece is higher than the first since he didn’t even out the yard before hand. Sigh. After he plants, his plants this morning, he is going to have to restart the fence. Maybe he will use the level. 🤣

I am assigned to plant the backyard plants, which I have been doing. We put up a wire fence to keep the dog away from the back garden which currently has only tomatoes and fennel. Also the flower garden where I am planting flowers. We bought a gate last week.

I’ve been waiting for him to notice that he put this gate in backwards. 🤦🏻‍♀️. What is it with him and gates? 🤣

Meanwhile, my neighbor is outside and we get into a discussion about what he wants to do with my secion of the yard between our houses. (I’ve been letting him park his cars there.). What is it with old men?

I have to explain that what he wants to do won’t work, and besides, I don’t want him to that. He says I said he could do what he wanted. Yes, I did. 😂. But you can’t do that and I explain again why. He finally gets it. Then he says he wantS to put a gate between the two houses.

I point out that first, he wants to put the gate pole where my gas line is so he can’t. Next I point out the he can put a gate across his portion of this land, on the property line, but not my portion. Because it would be a problem when we go to sell.

Then he says when we sell it, he will buy it so as to not have these issues. (I refrain from telling him it was up for sale for 4 months before we bought it, which he knowns, and asking him why he didn’t buy it then.)

Why am I saddled with two old difficult men? 🙄
 
Got a ton of plants for a dollar. Over 60 plants, regular 11.00, for one dollar. Same yesterday only fewer plants. We are planting planting planting. So tired.
 


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