Lawnscaping

I try to be as busy as I can be working on my lawn~scaping project.

The Summer months are my busiest months.

My husband David (Mushroom Buyer) is home all day long trying to rest up and I have a very long list of "Honey~Do's" for him to assist me with.

My physical abilities are easily disturbed when I do something I shouldn't or I just move wrong and then my work project is done for a few days so I try very hard to work like a turtle, a little bit at a time!

1.) I still need to gather poles so I can finish the Pole Gazebo roof yet it looks amazing right now!

2.) Acquire new recycled wood supplier.

3.) Finish remodeling chicken pen roof (1/2 done).

4.) Remodel roof area on my workshop and "R n R" Hut before the rain starts.

5.) etc.....

I finally acquired a large collection of recycled windows for my pallet wood green house and a home made hot tub~spa room. Now all I need is more misc., building material scraps. 

I found an idea for a home made hot tub with a BBQ  that is attached by the tubing used to heat the tub. What a brilliant idea! So, I also have a cattle water trough-new, that was given to me and was planning on using it for the hot tub!

I placed the recycled waterfall tray along side of the medium sized swimming pool I use and set up the lines to the main barrel and waterfall pump. Am working on how to make a good home made in line pool filter.

 My husband split and cut more cedra for the bottom of the Gazebo.

We cut Yew wood slabs and started making the wood walkway around the yard for a path and my Peacock snuck into the garden for some nibbles on the variety of blossoms.

The white gutter laying inside the garden along the poles I had used this Spring to start my leaf lettuce and spinach. I wrapped it lenght wise with 2 layers of plastic wrap and it worked wonderfully. 

It looks much better than this picture now. I do mow the grass. This is showing the flower bed trimmed with poles and the pallet fence with misc., wood pieces my husband has brought in for my garden-yard-haven.

This was taken in the early Spring but I wanted to show the wood benches my husband made for the gazebo. He made 3, the one in front of the BBQ Pit, one on the left inside the Gazebo and another out side along the hanging wood wall. Each are made from a Madrone log cut in half and are mounted in the ground.

As you can see from the pictures I am always trying to work on at least one are. 

I have down loaded newer pictures yet I have so many I am having trouble finding them so I will go outside and get new photos with the lawn all mowed and you can see exactly what all of this NOW looks like.

I feel the need to say thaat ALL OF MY YARD/GARDEN AREA IS AND WAS MADE FROM RECYCLED MATERIAL!! Pallets, wood logs, wood decks, porches, nails, screws salvaged from wood debris (decking-porches), fencing pieces, poles, tree trimmings, firewood pile, neighbors wood garbage pile (folding doors and a home made ping pong table I took apart for wood),old decommissioned road signs, lattice pieces, hinges, ALL OF THIS!! 

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I am enjoying my "Haven"

Yard landscaping with Natural Wood

Garden Haven not a lawn

LOTS of work to do. I added onto the chicken pen for a yard area by using old slats I recycled from a discarded porch swing and pallets.

I started on a fence using pallets I purchased from the local feed store. Some were free because they were broken or missing slats. This was the (back side view) fence for my garden area.

Started making a border fence out from the garden to border the property with pallets.

To the left of the chicken pen in the front of the property showing the driveway I used the pallets for the boundary fence and driveway access.

I also finally planted the living Christmas ~Fir tree.

The yard~Flower bed with the pallet fence. This view is from back corner of garden looking to front of the property. The pool area is to the left.

This is the bottom of the Gazebo. We used cedar pieces to make a flooring around the BBQ Pit.

Yew wood pieces/slabs my husband cut for the walkway between the garden and the old chicken cages i am using for tomatoes and potato's.

Walking between the Gazebo and the Tomato's to the garden I used old cedar slabs found in the forest and tied them onto the old chicken cages to make them look like a fallen tree that has plants growing out of them.

Bare yard into woody style garden haven.

I started crating a "yard garden" 2 1/2 years ago. these are a few pictures of what the yard use to look like.

I have had a garden over the years and have posted on you tube "the ultimate deer fence" video (video is on this page for viewing) that I made from fishing line and odd noisy tidbits. Garden area is in the back of the property the front was bare so I started placing buckets with trees to border so I could see the layout.

This is a view looking across the front showing where my strawberries were and some framing I started for a chicken pen and a workshop.

I was told by my Chiropractor to do physical therapy EVERYDAY!

To avoid surgery on my neck. I have Cervical Ligament Failure and I also can not afford to go out and just purchase needed or wanted supplies so I have rounded up from friends and strangers ALL MY WOOD AND SUPPLIES! 

I have recycled old discarded bookshelves, decking materials from a friend that was removing it, older folding doors discarded, fencing supplies, chicken wire and or cages, the silliest of things to 4x4's and even left over building scraps from local construction sites.

THANK YOU TO ALL THAT HAVE DONATED TO ME OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS!!

Some days I can not swing a hammer or use my hand saw and all labor was done with old fashioned hand tools and an battery operated drill. Almost three (3) years later I have transformed my yard into the "haven" area I desired. My poor husband has moved heavy things for me and assisted me when he is not buying mushrooms. 

A work in progress. A chicken pen on the left and a small pile of scrap materials.

I had a few things I wanted to put in my "haven", A Chicken pen, Rabbits, garden, private pole structure area, workshop, a BBQ pit, Gazebo made from poles, native flower beds with a nature area for birds, water pond, water stream~feature, swimming pool (small one) and a yard fence. 

With no money to spare and lots of time in my days for therapy I started building a little bit at a time, Some days I could only work for an hour or so over the whole day taking breaks due to the pain but perseverance paid off for me!

I figured out where to place the Gazebo and where I thought the Pit should be and started with the BBQ pit.

Dug out the ground and discovered a layer of clay down about 14" in the ground and used the clay to mix with the dirt for mortar and squished it in between the rocks to make my "PIT"! 

I am a bit of a naturalist and love the look of wood. I have used poles to cut for standing borders, long poles sectioned into various lengths/heights to trim garden/flower beds, poles, slabs and natural pieces of "art" for placing in the flower beds and hanging wall "art".

Now remember these pictures show a "work in progress". They change in appearance occasionally as work and supplies progressed.

  I used framing boards from a construction site to framed in my grand daughters little pool for a pond area. I recycled some tubing and made a drain with cement for support underneath and used 2x6 remnants for the frame under the pool. Placed in plants and bought fish. The fish were eaten in 24hrs by local cats so I had to modify the pond.

 used poles from a friend and recycled the lattice from another friend for the swimming pool, an old book shelf for the strawberry bed near the pond frame.

Finally set the frame in for the Gazebo and made wall art from heavy twine and wood scraps from the mountains that my husband and friends have brought to me for my yard.

I'll post some of the completed pictures in another posting. 

I hope this gives you some ideas for "recycling" and "re purposing" old materials.

I have had a wonderful time doing my physical therapy, painful, but as the old saying goes, "no pain no gain"!

Deer fence around Garden

I created this video to show the "ultimate deer fence" I had made that has been so successful at preventing deer from entering my garden! It also shows the bare yard area outside of the garden that I have since transformed into my "garden haven"..

I am not finished with my yard work because it is a work in progress. 

It is almost complete. I have more Yew wood rounds for slabs to have husband cut for the pathway I want and a top made on the pole gazebo but it is getting closer to being completed!