It's a Sickness

Walking around my neighbourhood, I see a lot of what I call the "Costco" yards.  When Costco carried the PVC garden sheds, they cropped up in yards all around.  When they carried trampolines, at least ten yards in the area suddenly had trampolines.  Same with pergolas and play houses.  The most dedicated "Costco" yards have somehow made room for them all.  (Note the one in the back of the photo.)

Me?  I don't have a lot of the Costco clutter (other than a big compost tumbler), but I do have a variation of the same problem.  Each year, I tend to get crazy ideas to add gardens, plant trees and somehow find room for more.

Last year, I decided that I'd expand the garden in the side yard and make it into a veggie garden.  Work got in the way, I didn't get it done and since veggies only have a short growing period, I had to put it off until fall.  There was a brief moment when I thought I might not be digging in a new garden during this year's growing season; but that wasn't meant to be.

What started as an effort to attract birds has turned into a determination to plant trees and make the yard seem more sheltered.

I didn't get much done today between rain storms, but I did do enough that now I'm committed.  I suspect it'll be at least a week before I'm ready to plant if I dig a little everyday.  

In the end, I plan to put a columnar cedar in the corner  between the compost tumbler and the little bump out for garbage cans.  I've got a (very small) purple sand cherry tree that'll go on the other side of the compost tumbler.   It should eventually grow as tall as the fence.

Other than that, there will be some hardscape to accommodate the traffic in the area, strawberry plants and some creeping Thyme.

Next year, I'm thinking about pulling out the grass in that circle around the clothesline and replacing it with either gravel or interlocking stones.  If I keep this up, I expect it won't be too much longer before I've got a sod-free yard.