The Yard Diaries: Part IX (The Finale...For Now)

To read all previous posts within the Yard Diaries series, click here.

Okay! So I've been encouraged by my handsome hubby and his dad (a.k.a. Lumberjack Larry) to wrap this series up. Personally, I don't know what they're talking about - I'm only nine months behind!

When I left off, our new driveway had been poured, the bobcat was grading the yard and the fence was being installed.

Then this bad boy showed up:

Have you ever had a tractor-trailer truck rumble down your street and stop in front of your house with a delivery for you? I haven't, and it was a little intimidating. Especially once the driver began placing the pallets of sod all over our yard. It was a lot of sod.

Oh, and did I mention that Kenneth decided that he was going to lay the sod himself?

Yeah, a lot of sod.

Thankfully, my husband is as brilliant as he is handsome and decided to hire a couple of helpers. You can see one of them in the picture below. I was so thankful for those guys! Sod has to be laid within 24 hours of delivery for the best results and we also had the added pressure of a big thunderstorm rolling in the next morning, so time was of the essence.

Oh, and here's the third little helper:

After the guys helped Kenneth for about eleven hours, they had to leave, so I took the kids over to Kenneth's parents and came back and helped as well. Sod is WAY HEAVIER than it looks!!!

Then when the kids came back, I put them to sleep and Kenneth and I stayed up until about 1 a.m. laying the last of the sod. The next few days were very rainy -perfect timing- exactly what the sod needed!

Then over the next few weeks, Kenneth and his helper began planting some foundation plants and privacy trees in the backyard.

Then, as the weather warmed, the sod turned green and grew like crazy! So the yard and the baby grew together...

And as we watched our kids roll around and play in their new yard, all of the stress and hard work became a fleeting memory. It was all completely worth it.

In the picture below, you can see some of the privacy trees that Kenneth planted. Our hope is that they will grow up and make the back yard feel very private and serene.

Here is a picture of the front yard in the fall. You can see all of the beautiful mums that Kenneth planted along the front walkway.

And in this picture, you can see more privacy trees. We're also excited that the fence is already changing colors. I like the older, gray color better than the shiny new wood color!

In some of these pictures, you can also see the curves that we created when the sod was being laid. That was definitely the hardest part about the sod going down.

So there you have it! I'm looking out the window right now at the yard, and I still can't believe we did it! Many thanks to Lumberjack Larry and most of all to Kenneth, who worked countless hours to get the yard where it is today. We hope to start phase two in the Spring of next year, when we'll add more plants in the backyard and along the foundation. Then phase three the following year will be planting the side yards. We'll keep you posted!