Hello, yard!

Like I said, we've been in our house almost a year now, so we've already done quite a bit to the yard. The first series of posts will serve to catch the diary up on what we've already done.

However, first I will just give a brief description of the yard. The front yard is flat and fairly small. To the right of the driveway there's a strip of yard about 4 feet wide, and extending back to the privacy fence on that side of the house. The front section is grass, about 3 feet deep (this is the only grass on our property, and our neighbor mows it for us...hooray for no mowing!) Behind that is our beloved triple-apple tree, and behind that is a row of shrubs [NEED IDENTIFICATION] with green and red leaves that will one day form a hedge along our property line.

To the left of the driveway, there is a larger patch of yard; probably 15'x15'. The ground is covered in black wood chips dotted with a variety of shrubs and flowering perennials. There is one large shade tree [NEED IDENTIFICATION] near the street (most of the yards on our street have one of the same kind). There's another smaller tree near our garage.

This area is backed by an iron fence with a gate; behind this is our front patio, which is entirely paved over except for planting "gutters" along the left-side property line, along the iron fence, and near the front gate.

Figure 1: The backyard, as it was when we moved in. Note lime tree in patio gutter at far right, and lemon tree halfway up the left side of the yard

Our back yard is fairly narrow (but long) and is split into two main parts: a back patio which is mostly paved over, and a landscaped yard which slopes upward. In between, there is a large cement storm gutter for runoff, which actually runs through all of the back yards on our side of the street. In our yard, the gutter is covered over with a deck.

The lower patio has planting "gutters" along the property fence: the wider one on the left is served by the drip irrigation system, the one on the right hosts an established lime tree but nothing else, since it is not on the drip system. There are also two planting areas below each window on the back side of the house. Not on the drip system, but there are hydrangeas here that are doing really well with just occasional watering from kitchen veggie rinse water.

Above the storm drain/deck, the sloped yard is covered with the same black wood chips as in the front. There is a paved pathway and staircase running up the center, constructed from interlocking landscaping stone. The same stone is used in several places to form small retaining walls to provide some flatter planting areas. On the left side, the second of these hosts an established lemon tree; on the right the second host(ed) a small red smoke bush.

The top of the back yard is capped with a flat area, maybe 15'x15', separated from the rest of the yard by a short iron fence and a wooden gate. This area was just bare dirt and a composting box when we moved in.

The side fences in the back yard are wood frames with a wire grid; when we moved in our neighbor on the left had grape vines on that fence, and our other neighbor had some bushes. In the patio portion of the back yard, the fences are 5'-high solid wood privacy fences.