my backyard

I can't believe I haven't shown you house pictures yet... we've already lived here for more than 6months. I'll give you some views of our backyard though now...
In April, Jason did a lot of work on our backyard and it looks awesome -
he removed rock from this area along the fence in order to give us a bit more grass area (he hauled a lot of rock from here and there - way too much rock!)our trampoline was in this area (above) when we first set it up in December, but now Jason moved it to the other side of our yard. Jason placed lots of the rocks (not all) under the trampoline's new home and lined the fence (which he also fixed) with cedars after he took down the shed that used to be there (talk about a lot of work!)notice the brick paths in this photo (below)? Jason took those out as well as the entire grass area that you see in these photos and replaced it with turf First of all he flattened out a good area just up these stairs here - where he built up a retaining wall and laid some turf and re-built a playhouse that was given to us...you can notice the nice grass and the little brick paths that he removed in this photo aboveand we bought this slide that so far is sitting on the steep slope and works just fine, but we aren't sure that that's where it will stay, for now it works! the slide is just above the new retaining wall that Jason built
We have an apple tree just near the slide - we'll see how it bears fruit... and some other mystery plants/trees:and this Spring has been like Christmas in that we didn't know what would be blooming - it was all a surprise! We have a gorgeous Magnolia tree and 4 rhododendron bushes, like this, but one was pink, one is red and two purple ones:and these ferns are growing in lots of places - really makes me believe we are living in a rain forest! (we do!)this gorgeous clematis showed up along our wall of ivyso we've (Jason) still got a lot of work ahead this fall when Jason will heavily sand our lawn, which didn't take as well as we had hoped and planned for... there are parts by the trampoline area that actually didn't take root - which has been extremely frustrating and disappointing for Jason who put so much energy into it. It's clay back there and not a nice soil... water just sits on it and doesn't soak up nicely. Hopefully he can figure out a plan to make it how he would like it to be! I love our backyard... swimming pool (on the deck as to not wreck our grass) with our hot weatherOne more thing Jason would like to do shortly is re-stain this deck too - it was only built last summer, but when we moved in, in November it was just trashed from the previous owners dog and weather. Always something to do!

Thanks, Hon, for all your hard work for making it even more beautiful!