Change of Plans

Spring has sprung at the Bonam's, the projects have officially begun.

So remember the project list from last month? 

Plans changed.  We decided that rather than doing the arborvitae, we would concentrate on our neglected backyard. 

SOME HISTORY:  A few years back we installed a smallish prefab pond.  It was cute, I loved it.  It was well planted the first year.  We bought beautiful koi to put in the pond and even installed lights to enhance the pond for night viewing.  It was a great summer.  Radio margaritaville and BBQ every Saturday night the first year.  The pond wasn't / isn't deep enough to winter the koi, so all but ONE were brought into the house.  "Orange Blossom" was our guinea pig to see if they could survive the winter in the pond.   We continued to love them and feed them all winter.  Orange Blossom hibernated in the pond outside.  The inside koi ate from your hand and grew like crazy. 

Spring came and it was time to move everyone outside...WITH ORANGE BLOSSOM.  Orange Blossom survived the winter and also grew like crazy.  We waited until it was warm enough and the pond was ready.  The move went well, everyone acclimated into the pond and seemed very happy.  The next morning I woke up to Lex standing at our bedroom window saying "honey, wake up.  you have to see this".  I stumbled to the window (still half asleep) to find a large white bird standing in our pond with its head down.  I FLEW down the stairs with our shepherd in tow, shoved him out the backdoor and we raced to the pond.  

Needless to say, most of the koi were gone.  It was devastating.  We replaced a few koi (which in frustration I named them Sushi and Ceviche).  We had to place a large net over the top of the pond to prevent our new koi from living up to their name.  Now I couldn't plant anything in the pond because of this large net.  To say the least, I was very discouraged.  Who would have thought that a heron would choose our SMALL pond for breakfast? 

Months passed.  We restocked the pond. They were becoming more friendly and they too ate out of your hand.  We didn't reinstall the lights and again... nothing was planted.  Frustration caused the pond area to fall into a state of neglect.  The pond was nice, but that's about it.  We still had Buffett & BBQ on Saturday night, but the ambiance of the pond was absent.



THIS YEAR: When "spring" arrived (early) this year we did our yard clean up and trekked around the property deciding what to do this year.  I found that after each exhausting day in the garden we would retire to the front porch for our victory beer and cigar.  Hence, the need for the arborvitae for more privacy in the front. 

Now, our backyard is visible from our large back door/windows in the kitchen.  It [the backyard] became our "dirty little secret".  Everyone saw the beautiful exterior, but no one saw the nightmare that was our backyard.  Landscaping follies.  Yes I had many.  I used small rock as mulch around the pond area.  ROCK.  Do you know how hard it is to plant and dig in rock?  This is another reason that the area never got finished.  We couldn't figure out [at the time] any other way to keep mulch from washing into our pond, so this was our answer.  We had a tree ring that was right next to the bridge to go over the pond.  We went through installing waterfalls that didn't work the way they should, a waterfall that looked terrible and a fountain that stopped working.  The pond area has been a royal pain in the...let's just say it's been a headache.  Last year my mother painstakingly picked up each and every rock/pebble around the pond in her free time.  On a side note she told me that she would beat me if I ever used small rock as mulch again.  We had lofty ideas for the back yard, but it just kept going to the back burner.

Then it came to us.  Let's finish the back.  enjoy our BACKYARD.

So this is what the next few posts are about.

OUR CHANGE OF PLANS.

THIS IS OUR "BEFORE" PICTURE