Ground Clearing

We wanted to start with a ‘clean slate’, so a bobcat came in to pull up the tree stumps and prepare the yard for landscaping.  The bobcat had a special attachment on the front with strong tines that could dig in under the stumps and pry them up.  The normal bucket was used to move the native soil around and level things off.

The greenhouse/shed ended up not having enough room for storage, so we put an 8’X8’ addition on the back.  In this photo the shingles still have to be put up.

Where do we start?

When we moved into the house on this rather large city lot, the back yard was pretty much the way Mother Nature had left it - a stand of lodgepole pines and willows. Not bad if you wanted a campground setting. But not what we had in mind for a yard that would meet our passion for gardening.

We had already cleared the left side of the lot and built a greenhouse/shed combination.

With the short summers, we wanted to be able to start bedding plants in the greenhouse early - during April - but be able to move them into a warmer place during the nights when there was still frost. So, the insulated shed is separated from the greenhouse by a set of sliding glass patio doors. Both sides have wire racks to hold the trays of bedding plants. We can accommodate about 45 trays on the racks.

You can see in this photo, taken from the roof of the house, that we start with a clean slate. Almost all of the trees have been cut down, leaving only a couple of spruces and some willows. The one willow, near the door to the shed, has been cut down and the new growth trimmed into a rounded form.