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From the NE corner, morning 5/24/08

From the NE corner, evening 526/08

The south side and corner, morning, 5/24/08

SE corner, evening, 5/24/08

SE corner after soil addition and plantings (bushes and spruce) 5/26/08

South side of house, morning, 5/24/08

South side, evening, 5/26/08

As with the north side, we removed 1-3 feet of sod from around the foundation. Here we also added a little direction for the sump pump and down spout drainage.

SE—Our new and improved corner drainage system. 5/26/08

SE—Increasing the new and improved drainage system 7/3/08

SE corner drainage—The finished trench before rocks. 7/4/08

SE corner—drainage into rain garden! 7/5/08

SE corner—Digging out the rain garden - 1 foot deep, evenly dug. 7/6/08

SE rain garden—Soil replacement=removing clay, adding hummus and topsoil. 7/7/08

SE corner rain garden—Planting complete! 7/15

3 Black Eyed Susans (1 transplant), 2 Blue Flag Iris, 1 Sunburst Coreopsis, 4 Coneflowers, 3 Joe Pye Weeds (1 transplant), 2 Columbines, 2 Fox Gloves, 3 Cardinal Flowers (lobelia cardinalis), 2 Queen Victoria Cardinal Flowers, 2 Beardtongues, 2 purple fountain grasses, and 4 Garden Phlox

The entire setup from the point of view of the sump pump. 7/15

NE corner—Ripping out sod for a butterfly garden. 6/28/08

The finished butterfly garden, 7/15/08

2 Butterfly bushes (1 pink, 1 purple), 3 Bee Balm, 2 Coreopsis, 1 white daisy, 1 black eyed susan, 4 dill, 1 Blue Queen Sage, 1 Roman Candle, 1 Joe Pye Weed, 1 Sweet William, 6 Cosmos.

Planting the butterfly garden (post soil replacement) 6/30/08

NE corner—a slightly expanded butterfly garden. 8/08

Our newest pride and joy - the RainCatcher 4000. 7/12

Breaking up the clay for soil replacement in the veggie garden. 6/19/08

Putting up the boards to keep the good dirt in. 6/19/08

Planting - zucchini, and 2 types of tomato. 6/19/08

2008 season ends—a SE corner view of the 3 backyard flower gardens.

Corner garden (closest), creek and rain garden, butterfly garden way over in the NE corner...

NE corner—a newly planted redbud to top off the season. 11/08

2009 season is here! NE corner—our beautiful redbud in the spring. 4/09

SE rain garden—the spring is too wet, the rain garden was a loss. 4/27/10

Only a handful of plants remained—the two blue flag iris, the 2 fox gloves, and the 3 black eyed susans.  The problem is that it has to take in our sump pump water as well. We will have to change our drainage plans.

SE veggie gardens—2 more raised beds! 7/18/09

six tomato plants, three zucchini, three yellow summer squash, two egg plants, and sundry onions

NE corner—expanding the butterfly garden. 7/18/09

The plan is to turn this corner in to a large, walk-through, native flower, butterfly garden.

NE corner—expanding the butterfly garden. 7/18/09

NE corner—terracing the newly expanded butterfly garden. 7/19/09

Terracing the garden should help keep the dirt in place and give the garden more visual appeal.

NE corner—planting the new butterfly garden space. 9/5/2009

We got a number of native plants for free from a wonderful couple in downtown Dexter, and we learned a lot in the process!

NE corner—adding room for another dry creek. 9/13/09

End 2009! NE corner—butterfly garden and dry creek for neighbor's sump. 9/13/09

End 2009! SE [rain] garden—creek now extends through the garden. 9/20/09

2010 season is here! Adding a full yard edge garden, 7/31/10

The 2010 growing season brought most of the 2009 perennial plantings back. Yay! But it highlighted some issues with the new drainage trench in the butterfly garden—namely a low spot and standing water at the outlet—so we decided to go forward not only with our 2010 plans but with our "down the road" plans as well. 2010 plans were to remove the rest of the sod to extend the butterfly garden up to our neighbors' fences (no more mowing/weed whacking in that tight space!), and the "down the road" plans were to connect all the existing gardens with a full yard edge garden. Yay!

NE corner—The butterfly and new edge gardens, 8/2/2010

ESE—the (no longer) rain and new edge gardens. 8/2/2010

The grass area to the right, bordered by the gardens and the creek, is slated to be turned into a patio with fire pit by this time next year.

8/2/2010 View from the SE corner.

8/2/2010 view from the SE corner. All it needs is trees!