Let's Create a Backyard Park!

If you’ve been following my Summer 2020 projects, you’ll already know that my plan for this year’s landscaping was focused on the garden area in the backyard. If you are new here or haven’t been following along, now you know 🙂

Do I update our landscape every year? No, but I have for the last three years in a row. Will I continue to update next year? Maybe?? It isn’t in the plan right now, though. I think the yard looks awesome as it is! But, I do tend to find things to tweak sooooo stay tuned!

Back to this year’s landscaping plan. Our back garden area needed a little love. Our 13-year-old Maple tree has grown so well that its roots had started to displace the grass. Much of the lawn on two sides of the tree was either gone or sparse and the roots made mowing difficult. So, last year, I decided to do something about it. Below are the projects that came about from that decision. As I was working in the backyard, hubby started referring to the garden area as our Park so now, that is what we both call it.

The table of contents is included for your convenience. Click on the highlighted title above each section to go directly to the post which will have all the details of the project

Table Of Contents

Bark bed revamp
Gaining inspiration
Raised garden beds
Tree patio
Path/Dry river bed/Divider
Seating patio
Laying the foundation
Fun features!
Painted birdbath
Sign Post
Supplies used for the projects
Other Summer Projects

Bark bed revamp

Before beginning on the garden area, I decided to revamp the bark beds in the main area of the yard. What was great about that is that it provided me with bricks to use in the garden area.

Gaining inspiration

Since I didn’t have a definite plan for the garden area, I laid the old bricks from the bark beds around the space: some went around the raised garden beds, others around the tree bench, and the rest in an area that I thought might be good for a patio & a path.

Raised garden beds

Once the revamp of the bark beds was complete, I turned my attention to the garden area. The first area I updated was the raised beds. One of the beds had a side that had fallen off the posts. We replaced the two 4″ x 4″ posts and also 2″ x 8″ board as they had all rotted.

After the bed was repaired, I decided not to use the 8″ x 16″ bricks around the beds so I moved them to the place where I planned to build a patio. I then removed the sod around each bed & planted ground cover. I love how nice this looks!

Tree patio

Time to move onto the first project where I can use the bricks from the bark beds. I had both 8″ x 16″ and 12″ x 12″ bricks. By making a frame out of wood, I was able to level the bricks for this patio.

Path/Dry river bed/Divider

When I started using the bricks in this space, I called it a path. Then I realized that it only went from bark bed to bark bed. and looked more like a dry river bed than a path. Now I view it as the feature that divides the lawn from the Park.

Seating patio

The next bark brick project I tackled was the seating area. Since the tree is so large, it provides a lot of shade. I wanted to take advantage of the shade so I made a little heart-shaped patio! This project used the rest of the bricks so I supplemented with some flagstone.

Laying the foundation

Well, this looks out of place, but, actually, it’s the last step I took in the creation of our Park area.

Fun features!

Now that the heavy lifting was done….nothing like moving brick, rock, sand, bark & digging up sod to give you a great summer workout!….it was time to add some fun additions to our Park!

Painted birdbath

I love the look of a birdbath in a garden or park. I’ve put off buying one for all thee years because they are usually pricey! Then, I found one at Walmart for $24.99!!! As you’ll read in the post, I did need to make some adjustments to the birdbath, but it was still worth it for the low cost.

Sign Post

I’ve also been fond of signposts and posts that show how far you are from where you want to go. My kids are grown and two of them moved far away. I thought it would be fun to build a sign post to show where they are and how far it is to get to them. It’s a great addition to our Park!

Well, there’s the development of our Park! Was that all I did this summer? Uh, no….before and during the park project, I worked on a few other things …those links are below. We also had the deck repaired and I have finished staining it! I’ll get that post together for you soon!