Backyard Project...

My backyard project is moving along.  Slow, but forward.

My original, pie-in-the-sky, plan is shown below. 

Notice the built-in BBQ with island seating under a large umbrella.  The wooden bridge traversing a babbling brook and Koi pond.  The large jacuzzi against a rock wall backdrop.  New and crack-free cement.

Beautiful?   Of course.

Realistic?  Hardly.

[side note - I did the above plan in Excel.  Its probably pushing the boundaries of a spreadsheet but you work with what you know, yes?]

[side note #2 - the house portion of the design went off well - the great room (right side of the house) consists of the kitchen, dinning room, and living room, and was a considerable redesign.  Three walls were removed in that portion of the project.  The backyard was left for last and it is what currently consumes my time.]

As a result, the plan for the backyard has changed a few times over the months/years. The budget demon has a way of scaling back most plans and my was no exception.

The current plan consists of...
    1) Garden    
        a few raised garden beds for vegetables
        a handful of oak barrels for fruit trees
        a few upside down tomato plant holders for, err, tomatoes
    2) Free standing BBQ
    3) Table and chairs under an umbrella
    4) Shaded area with grass and a few chase lounges
    5) Possibly a free standing fire pit with a few chairs

The first phase of the backyard project - the raised garden beds - is finished and awaiting soil and plants.

The raised garden beds from the left side of the yard.

The raised garden beds from the right side of the yard.

I stopped at 10 rows per box/bed.  I also stopped at two boxes.  I originally planned four, but ran out of bricks.

I was scrounging CraigList for bricks as I thought I was a row short on the second box but a last ditch scavenger hunt in the less traveled areas on my backyard found a gold mine of buried bricks.  Good thing too, as all the bricks for sale and free on CraigList (yes, there were a few "free if you dig them out" posts) were the standard 8 inch long variety and what I was using was 12 inches.

I used masonry glue to hold the bricks together.  Initially, I was thinking of laying the bricks without mortar or glue but a talk with my dad convinced me to use some sort of adhesive.  Looking and feeling the solidness the finished boxes, I am glad I took his advise.

Last row of bricks about to be added. It turned out that a single tube of construction adhesive was used for each row.

A simple Google search for "building garden beds" will pull back a long list of DYI sites.  What I gleaned from reading a few was I only needed between 12 and 24 inches of soil for normal garden vegetables.  Which worked out as my lack of bricks stopped me at 16.5 inches (10 rows).  With a planned one inch of pebbles/coconut liner for good drainage, that will leave the beds with 15 inches or so of growing soil. 

Up next - laying out the grass area, sprinklers, and the sod vs seed discussion.  I also need to plumb the water line to the above boxes.  I did get smart and plan ahead - I added some space for piping into the boxes.

Future plumbing: Image above is ground level access hole. Image right is two brick high access hole. Pending how the plumbing works out, one or both holes may be used.