A Yard Facelift

Some of you may know I have a ginormous German Shepherd named Anubis.

I generally refer to him as The Werewolf. My backyard is a small, fenced-in space that is barely large enough for The Werewolf to terrorize tiny beasties that also live there. He's not destructive in the least (Mama raised him right), however, just the simple act of playing fetch causes him to tear up precious lawn and trample plants. Plus, during these hot July days, my all-black monster gets overheated pretty easily. Due to these issues, we had to do some renovating to the yard.

We dug out a stream and a pond so Anubis could cool off at his leisure. I tried the blue, plastic kiddie pool route last summer, and while The Werewolf loved it, the pool just didn't stand up to his constant in and out and thrashing about. Now, he can slosh around in the pond without fear of needing duct tape to keep all the water in.

 

 

We planted things behind the stream and pond so he is less likely to roam back there. He still explores that area, but the way the plants are placed makes him unable to whip through at the speed of light. It's sort of like an obstacle course now where he needs to tread carefully to navigate around.

Around our fire pit, the grass would always burn due to sun exposure, and more recently due to dog piss, so we built a patio around it instead with crushed stone and large flagstones. The area is way more conducive to sitting around now, and I'm sure we'll use it a lot more. As a bonus, Anubis doesn't like to walk on the crushed stone. Ah-HA!

 

 

So while the grass is still torn up in spots and new spots get sacrificed every time we play, the rest of the yard looks amazing. It's about dragging the eyes off the patches of dead grass and to the colors of the flowering plants and the gentle ripple of the pond and stream.

Yeah, it's about tricking you. I had to do something. It's my Outdoor Writing Office out there in the summer. I couldn't be distracted by the non-lushness of my grass. I needed areas to focus on that were beautiful and inspiring.

Hey, we do what we gotta do. Someday I'll move to Vermont where The Werewolf can run free and there is no manicured lawn to worry about.

What would your dream yard look like?

Happy Fourth of July!

Toodles,
Chris
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