HOw To BACKYARD BEFORE AND AFTER

Periodically we like to see the results of our hard work in before and after photos and thought we'd share these.  I was looking through some old photos and found a great "before" photo and so I decided to stand in the same spot and get a new 'after'.  

Backyard before

Here is the backyard before.  

Those trees and shrubs and vines went almost all the way through to the other side.  There were a few open spots but I when I got the mower, I would start mowing a little wider each time, clearing more and more.  At times I would get out the shears and hacksaw and clear by hand as many of the vines as possible.  When we were finally left with just a few junk trees, we hired a guy to safely cut them down. 

For a while, it was just mud and dirt.  And tire ruts.  We decided I would just mow it over and over for a season (or two), sprinkled out some grass seed one early Spring and eventually the ruts filled in, the grass returned and it became a regular yard!

Backyard after

This is what it looks like now.  

That's why we decided this year that it was finally the right time to put in the fruit trees and here it is.  

2 Pear trees

2 Plum trees

2 Apple trees

2 Peach trees

They are doing great. I mentioned that we lost the two apple trees but we believe that was from the Winter, they just never came out of their dormancy. It's possible they didn't have enough water (my fault) and one was infested with ants in its black container.  One of them has already been replaced (update tomorrow).  The others are all growing nicely, so we're happy about that.  Reluctantly, I pinched off blooms so we can let them concentrate on root development.  

Patience grasshopper!

Also, we would be remiss if we didn't say Happy Father's Day to all of you out there who are fathers or to your own fathers.  We have lost both of ours, but they live on in everything we do to honor their memories!  

I'll catch up on comments tonight.  Hope your weekend went well!