Backyard Landscape Part IV

Our backyard landscape project is FINISHED! Final project includes a new stone patio, a garden wall, an informal path between the houses, an in-ground sprinkler system and lighting. There is a defined place for everything now and here are the highlights followed by the before and after pictures.
Patio: The patio is great for eating, dancing and even for the kids using their tricycles or other ride-on toys. The stone we used is actually all man made. We wanted a more environmentally friendly choice and although it is very different working with this versus natural stone, we are happy with the end result.
Garden Wall: The wall is built to standard chair height. Therefore, it not only looks good but serves as additional seating too. As for the plants, it is filled with only varigated ornamental grass. I wanted to keep the look very clean, simple and by using only ornamental grass, it is an unappealing hangout for bees and wasps (which is great if your eating out there).
In-Ground Sprinklers: Our favorite reasons for having a sprinkler system...your property gets watered whether you are home or not, at 6AM while your still sleeping and more efficiently than by hand with a hose or an old school sprinkler head. Our set-up includes 3 zones: Zone 1 is grass, Zone 2 is the garden wall and Zone 3 is the kids area. We love automation.
Lighting: We have used solar lighting in our previous projects but this time we went with electric. I wanted something more consistent, on when you want it and as long as you want it. Our set-up is also automated to turn on at dusk for a few hours.
Kids Area: Because our kids are still very young (2 & 3) we’ve left the one side just for them. We planted a tiny simple garden on the side that you would see when walking in through the side gate. The other side has a little patio, some ground cover and dirt. They love to dig for worms, bug and just for fun, so we’ve left it pretty much unfinished for them to have fun in. We'll update the area as they grow. We top seeded the grass after these pictures were taken and it has started to fill in quite nicely already, by the fall the grass should look good again.
Vegetable Garden (Future): In the end we left the long strip along the back untouched. It is full sun for most of the day and so it will be turned into a vegetable garden in the future. We decided to postpone this part so that kids could still have lots of room for their slide, inflatable pool and what ever else they want to do out there. Perhaps next year.

Final Thoughts: We saved a bundled doing the installation ourselves. My husband and I both have the landscape background to do this confidently, the family to help us when we needed it and the incentive to get it done on time (ready to celebrate our son's birthday in two weeks). We are over the moon with what we've accomplished and we happy to be DONE! Now it's time to get ready for the birthday party and enjoy our beautiful back yard! Thank-you for following this project and your kind words!