We bought our house in early Spring so pretty much nothing was growing yet. Even by the end of that first summer, not much was growing still, and there was no real reason to be out there. In fact, aside from the struggling lawn, a few rose bushes, some half-dead peach trees, a few bulbs (irises and tulips), and a bunch of weeds, nothing was growing. The fence bordering our property and the neighboring water tower was also at the end of its life, and the deck had seen better days. We obviously had work to do! Here is a tour of our yard, from front to back, before we did anything (aside from a little lawn rehab the previous summer).

The front yard, at a glance, was okay. I mean, it wasn’t great, or much to write home about, but it wasn’t repulsive. There were a few issues that we wanted to resolve though. For one thing, the fence looked like it was installed haphazardly, and whoever previously dug the post holes could’ve been quite tipsy, to say the least. The biggest issue, however, was the execution of the flagstone patio. Non-level patios aren’t exactly functional. The step was also tiny. It was maybe 12 inches deep (if that) and 12 inches wide, and wasn’t comfortable to use as a step. The layout wasn’t functional either - why have 2-3 feet of patio along the south side of the house? You can barely fit a chair there. The worst thing about the patio: it covered the siding on the south side of the house. This is a HUGE no-no. Never, ever, ever, EVER do that. Please. DON’T. You’re asking for trouble. This was obviously one of the things we had to address as soon as possible.

The backyard was...boring. It was also very weedy, or completely barren. Aside from a rose bush or two, irises, and some strawberries, there weren’t any plants beyond the peach tree that had died once and re-grew from the not-quite chopped down tree. The flagstone patio in the back was nice though! And the retaining wall was (and still is) decently built. We liked the shape of the deck, but the cinder block that was a “step” was kind of sketchy. It also had a bit of a bounce and the decking was starting to crack and split heavily.

One of the biggest issues we had with our backyard was related to drainage. We didn’t have any flooding in our basement, but we did have issues with standing water due to incorrect and inconsistent grading. This became especially apparent in the winter after Atlas was always tracking mud into the house. Upon further inspection, we noticed a slight crown to the middle of the yard, causing the ground to slope towards both the house and the boundary of our property. This is the opposite of what is desired - the ground should slope away from the house to prevent water intrusion. Later we learned that this was a more drastic problem prior to work done by the previous owner, who had removed a lot of dirt from the backyard and installed the retaining wall. Unfortunately, they didn’t quite go far enough with dirt removal, nor did they put in any kind of drainage. We clearly had our work cut out for us!