OUR NEW BACK YARD (April 2009)

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VIEW FROM THE DECK VIEW FROM THE GARAGE VIEW FROM THE SIDE YARD
I had just begun to remove the lawn - by hand! Process: use spade to loosen a section, use a hand trowel to pull up chunks, smash off as much of the dirt as possible for use in the planter boxes (dirt is expensive!), remove the tenacious green plastic mesh still imbedded around the roots and discard. Lather, rinse, repeat!
Lawn is gradually disappearing -- it took working an hour or two each morning for over a week to get it all out!
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Grass is gone! Wahooo! [The remaining grass between the two planter beds and will eventually die. The yellow tape is where we want the edge of the patio.
The workmen dug out another 8 inches of soil (which was piled for later distribution into the planter boxes), lay down and compacted some base rock, and brought in the bricks.
 
Lots and lots of bricks (over 1000).
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Next a layer of sand and they started laying bricks.  

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Bricks are down. The gaps that can be seen will be adjusted by removing bricks in the old patio, moving the bricks apart just a tad to take up the space, and then the entire patio is ready for the sand.
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Sand is pushed over the entire surface to fill in the cracks. This makes the bricks stay in place, but allows water to penetrate.
Done! They said the new bricks would fade during the summer to the point where you won't be able to tell where the old patio was.
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Next we had planter boxes assembled. They came in a box - preformed boards made from recycled plastic that fit together like Lincoln Logs - very nice design! All the dirt from the old lawn is either in the planter boxes or distributed around the yard on the sides. Ready for plants!
Tomatoes in the far box, green beans, lettuce, okra, eggplant, onions, and cucumber in the closer bed. Basil, chamomille, and cilantro in the pots next to the closer bed. The pots on the far side have flowers. The un-raised bed next to the patio got another dozen strawberry plants to augment the 6 plants that were already there. We're going to buy some patio furniture next!
One more look back at the original view.... (and all in just three weeks!) Below shows the garden in July 2009.