Our back Garden - Stone Path

I started designing our back garden before I even knew I was moving out here. I am from Vancouver, have lived there all of my life and love it there. I am an avid gardener and let me tell you central Alberta just doesn't do it for me. The choice of plant materials is very limited compared to what I am used to and I must say it has provided me with quite a challenge.

West fence which has since been replaced by neighbour.

It was rather intimidating. A garden designer I am not I just put things in empty spaces left by other gardeners and hope it works out, if not they get moved. I have also spent a lot of my time gardening in containers. A whole back yard as small as it was, was a whole new ball game. So since it wasn't my yard I was working with the wishes of the man. This was also totally new for me.

East fence, still needs replacing.

Designing for someone else and not for me. It was fun to totally remove my ideas from the scenario. He requested a path from sidewalk to garage, a swing(I thought that was really sweet), lawn, fire pit and low maintenance perennials.
So I got out paper and pencil and put my ideas, or his, down. The path was to be brick from the gate to the garage door, along the front and side of the garage to the back gate. To the left of the path a garden area with shrubs and hostas as this area gets little sun. To the right of the path which is the largest part of the yard a grassy area with a firepit and swing backing onto the fence.

View from front gate to garage.

The back yard was a mess. Dirt, weeds and a Beagle named Rodney running all over wreaking havoc. Every time it rained it turned into a mud pit. There was nothing good about it except perhaps that it was a clean slate. I had never had a clean slate before.
Well, nothing got done. Two months later I moved out from Vancouver and two years later we started on the back yard. Procrastination is our hobby. We think a lot, plan a lot, change our minds a lot and try and find less expensive alternatives. Finally we get it done or start at least.
Previous to starting the yard we did get a new door for the garage and I painted it blue. Actually I painted it twice because the first colour was way off. More like baby blue. But I love the final colour. It is a blue I have always wanted in my garden.

Path, dug and ready for stone.

New path after all of our hard work.

 One weekend last June I was off to visit my family and the man was going to do some yard work so he had me spray paint where I would like the path to go. He then dug it up while I was away. We decided to go with a Rundle Stone path instead of brick as the brick was going to cost way to much money. The digging was all done when I returned. Yay!! We purchased a small crushed stone and packed it down with a compactor that we borrowed from a friend. That was a huge life  and cost saver. Then covered that with landscape fabric to prevent weeds from coming up as well as keep the Rundle stone from sinking into the crushed stone. We then lined the edges with brick to keep all the stone in place and added the Rundle stone. And one last compacting. Let me tell you, that was a lot of work. It was all worth it. It's very casual and I love the look. In the picture above the fence is different than the other pictures. The neighbour asked if they could replace the fence. We said yes. I'm kind of regretting that decision. I really liked the old fence. It had character and I have a thing for horizontal fencing. This one is not built as well and the wood is no where near as good. But it's done now. 
 Life is better shared
Brenda