I figured instead of showing only photos of plants, it would help to show a plan of the backyard. But because I understand that not everyone loves a plan as much as I do, I'll make it all fancy.
It also might help Marc and I organize ourselves. Imagine that!
(click to enlarge)
And here are some photos of what we have done so far (with the grey pointing to where I took the photo).
(click to enlarge)
It is actually shaping up really nicely and it is AMAZING to spend time out there. Franca loves it. More than loves it actually. It's been fun laying out all the outside rules, like:
What you CANNOT touch: spiders & snakes
What you CAN touch: roly-polies, worms, ants, slugs, snails, beetles, moths, centipedes, etc.
What can I say? The girl loves bugs.
Sometimes we will have come inside and I find her playing in the living room with one hand clenched around a poor roly-poly all curled up just praying for his life. Last week I had to let her drive a dead stink bug around her train track in a matchbox car. She still asks, "Where's my stinky bug?"
Anybunny, it's great to see how close (and above-and-beyond) the real thing is compared to our original plans (check them out here). Now we just have to: plant a garden, make lawnmower path, make a bench, remove last piles of junk, and make some dang real gates.
Should be a fun spring/summmer!
p.s. I'm only calling them roly-poly bugs because that is what people around here call them. I grew up calling them potato bugs and I think Marc calls them pill bugs.
Labels:
bobvila,
landscaping
It's looking so awesome! And I love the 3D plan, in my nerdy brain I think it's just as beautiful as the yard itself :)
ReplyDelete(a) This is awesome!!
ReplyDelete(b) As your friendly neighborhood biologist, I wanted to advise a revision to your touch/don't touch list. Centipedes can deliver a nasty bite, and some are actually venomous. That said, maybe what you're seeing are millipedes - which should be totally harmless. A centipede would be very fast-moving and hard to catch (and way creepier looking, IMO).
p.s. I forget where you are located - but if you're in the northern U.S., most of your snakes should be totally harmless! The worst thing a garter snake will usually do is poop on you, haha.
ReplyDelete@Meryl - Thanks. I love me some nerdy graphics!
ReplyDelete@Katy - Thanks for the millipede tip. Also, we are in the mid-south so we have plenty of snakes. I grew up in the North, so the idea that we have dangerous snakes here freaks me out!