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The landscaping goes well, although there is little progress. No, seriously. I couldn't figure out how to deal with that back yard and I finally conceded that my available time and list of to-dos were sufficiently small and large (respectively) that I wasn't going to get this done, and called in a landscape designer, right?
We've now found one we're happy with (yay!) at least based on the initial conversation. Her reaction to our back yard was funny. Apparently the contractor who does our maintenance, who referred us to her, didn't warn her about our yard even though he knew about it (he'd cleared the berries out!). It's a bit of a "challenge." Even by her standards, I think, though that's for more reasons than one.
She broke her foot, if I remember right about a week before she came to see us. So she knocked some cost off her fee in return for our gathering the yard measurements and references for her. Why? Because this yard is hard enough with all pieces working, with a broken foot there is NO WAY she would want to scramble around down there. I was paying close attention to MY balance and I didn't have to worry about anything else, and boy is that slope tiring. To get up it again I had to use my legs and feet in ways she couldn't have safely done.
So now we are in waiting mode, to see what she comes up with. I want a way into the lower back yard that doesn't involve broken necks, if possible, so she is looking at hardscaping possibilities first and will go over those with us and with the guy who'd have to install them. Hopefully that'll be feasible and affordable (I use that term loosely!), but we'll see. She does seem to have solutions and alternatives for some of our druthers. (Scott wants a weeping tree. I'm allergic to willow and don't want a large tree, either. She had some ideas.)
Meanwhile, I share a photo looking up at the house from the lower back yard, about a third or half the way between the retaining wall and the creek: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496367319/
No, the land behind me is not even, either. And neither is the land off to the right, where the slope that let me get down at ALL is. If it tells you anything, I had Scott hand me the camera over the drop-off once I was down. (I would have done so anyway as we needed to set it down - safer above - until the measuring was done, but in this case if that had not led to it, I'd've done it just to be sure the camera didn't suffer if I went down gracelessly on my butt partway down or otherwise pratfalled. A steep dirt slope with bark mulch over it is SO FUN.)
Edited to add: this is the slope that gives the best access to our yard: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496374154/
And this is a view to the south, 'sideways' to the yard so you can see a bit of the front-to-back changes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496407109/
We've now found one we're happy with (yay!) at least based on the initial conversation. Her reaction to our back yard was funny. Apparently the contractor who does our maintenance, who referred us to her, didn't warn her about our yard even though he knew about it (he'd cleared the berries out!). It's a bit of a "challenge." Even by her standards, I think, though that's for more reasons than one.
She broke her foot, if I remember right about a week before she came to see us. So she knocked some cost off her fee in return for our gathering the yard measurements and references for her. Why? Because this yard is hard enough with all pieces working, with a broken foot there is NO WAY she would want to scramble around down there. I was paying close attention to MY balance and I didn't have to worry about anything else, and boy is that slope tiring. To get up it again I had to use my legs and feet in ways she couldn't have safely done.
So now we are in waiting mode, to see what she comes up with. I want a way into the lower back yard that doesn't involve broken necks, if possible, so she is looking at hardscaping possibilities first and will go over those with us and with the guy who'd have to install them. Hopefully that'll be feasible and affordable (I use that term loosely!), but we'll see. She does seem to have solutions and alternatives for some of our druthers. (Scott wants a weeping tree. I'm allergic to willow and don't want a large tree, either. She had some ideas.)
Meanwhile, I share a photo looking up at the house from the lower back yard, about a third or half the way between the retaining wall and the creek: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496367319/
No, the land behind me is not even, either. And neither is the land off to the right, where the slope that let me get down at ALL is. If it tells you anything, I had Scott hand me the camera over the drop-off once I was down. (I would have done so anyway as we needed to set it down - safer above - until the measuring was done, but in this case if that had not led to it, I'd've done it just to be sure the camera didn't suffer if I went down gracelessly on my butt partway down or otherwise pratfalled. A steep dirt slope with bark mulch over it is SO FUN.)
Edited to add: this is the slope that gives the best access to our yard: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496374154/
And this is a view to the south, 'sideways' to the yard so you can see a bit of the front-to-back changes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyrielle/496407109/
