A Labour of Love - Our Backyard Oasis Complete

I knew planting a garden was going take some time but I never realized it would take 8 hours of hard work!  I had a number of things I wanted to get done around the house, you know spring cleaning type things... things that can't get done in the middle of the winter.  I also knew that I wouldn't be able to plant the garden all by myself and would need my hubby's help so I booked a week off work to plant the garden and do all the other things on my spring cleaning list.  Sadly, the weather didn't cooperate so I didn't get everything done, but the things that are left can get done on a weeknight after work or a weekend.

Luckily we had a nice day when we planted our garden, although there were some showers that rained down on us it didn't slow us down... it was actually refreshing, we aren't made of sugar... ok maybe hubby is LOL

Hubby and I woke up early, I made a good hearty breakfast to fuel us for a hard days work.  We went out in the yard and started getting rid of the weeds that were growing in the garden.  Hiccups (our fur baby) was in doggy heaven playing in the grass and basking in the sun.

Earlier in the week I went to the local "dirt depot"... we decided to use a company that delivered soil and mulch in manageable size bags.  We live in a townhouse and the only access to our backyard is a walk through in our garage and unfortunately there is a step, making it difficult to bring a wheel barrel from the front to the back.  This company we used is called Dirt Cheap, they are a local company but I am sure there are other companies that offer a similar service where you live.  They delivered our soil and mulch early in the morning.  

As the dirt was being delivered Ryan gave me "the look" (ah... I'm shaking in my boots) he thought I had ordered too much dirt and mulch.  After 24 bags of mulch and 72 bags of soil were delivered Ryan thought I lost my mind ordering so much.  You won't believe, I even caught him asking the delivery people if they would come back and pick up the bags we don't use. I gotta love my hubby!!!

We turned the existing soil and added some compost.  I actually was able to get the compost for free... Who doesn't like when you get things FREE!  The Region we live in keeps yard waste and compost items in a special area at the dump and then every spring they give the compost away to local residents. After the old soil was mixed and the compost was added it was time for the hard work.  Ryan agreed to do the heavy lifting and I would do the mixing and spreading.

Once the soil was ready we went to pick up our tress, thanks to a neighbour we didn't have to rent a UHaul, he let us borrow his SUV cause it was obvious our civic was just too small.

Once the plants were at the house we were ready to start planting. These are all of our plants, it doesn't really look like many when they are all just sitting there like that.

I know I mentioned yesterday that I would try and find pictures of the plants we are planting at maturity but I don't think I will be able to do that, sorry.

So before we started digging we placed all the plants around the garden where we wanted them to be just to make sure we left enough space for them to grow appropriately and also to make sure there was no big empty spaces.  We started to get so excited because it actually started to look like a nice completed backyard oasis but there was still lots of work to be done.  Once everything was in the right place we started digging the holes putting fertilizer to help them grow.  After everything was planted we then added black mulch (dog friendly mulch of course).  This is the finished product, Volia!!!

Let me tell you what we planted from left to right, here we go... Graphed Blue Spruce with hostas underneath, the little red plants are Coral Bells, the tree in the corner is a Yellow Bird Magnolia, and then we planted two Dwarf Burning Bushes.

This is the other side of the yard, you can see one of the burning bushes.  Then we planted three yellow daisy's, in the corner a Dwarf Alberta Spruce, with three Feather Reed Grasses beside it.  Also, we have a Blue Muffin Viburnum and a couple more Feather Reed Grasses around our air conditioner but I don't have a picture of those two, sorry!

That's it, our backyard oasis, as I mentioned yesterday it is a little sparse but it will fill in.  After a hard day at work in the yard Ryan and I just wanted to relax and enjoy our space so we got a popsicle and enjoyed our new chairs that I got on a short trip to the States.  I love these chairs they were an awesome buy at Target.  I can't wait to get Target here in Canada until then trips to the States are fine with me.

I hope you have enjoyed, thanks for tagging along on this journey to achieving our backyard oasis.  I just hope we get some nice weather so we can enjoy it.