The ranch...summer 2013

When we built this house in 2007 we figured we'd have more space than we'd ever need (cue hysterical laughter, right?)  We had the builder "landscape" the front and back yards for us, rather than put money in an escrow account and have to have the work done ourselves within 6 months.  We weren't thrilled with what we ended up with, but knew we'd eventually make it "ours".  We quickly realized that we were "outgrowing" the backyard.  The original landscaping consisted of a lot of rocks, little grassy plants, and some mostly dying grass.  Colorado isn't really suited to large green lawns, if you know what I mean...By 2010, we had added a couple rose bushes, a sad little garden, and, oh, yeah, a giant outdoor table, fire pit, and umbrella in the middle of the tiny yard. Still plenty of room for the kids and dogs to run around, but a pain to keep looking nice.

The dead patches in the lawn are courtesy of the dog...and the slugs.  How on earth we managed to have a slug infestation in Colorado is beyond me.  Regardless, this fenced backyard did allow me to open the back door and say, "Out!" to the children and dogs...so it served its purpose well. 
Since we moved in, we have created many architectural drawings of the perfect deck.  After discussions with the HOA, we decided that a patio would be a more economical way to go, so in 2012 the great patio project began.  Unfortunately, 2012 was also the "year of the torrential rain and hail" so for a few weeks this is what the backyard looked like...

Nice, eh?  Due to the high clay content (and the repeated rain and hail), this "quick" project took us (ok, Mr. Ranch) well into the fall to complete.  The benefit was this summer we started with a lovely patio...and lot of mud...In late March, when we started to think seriously about summer, this was the state of the backyard:

I said it looked like a sad pet cemetery.  That did not go over well.  After many days of hard work, we (ok, Mr. Ranch) got everything looking lovely--drip lines and new irrigation installed throughout, plants, literally a ton of rock hauled to the side yard and a ton of new rock and bark much hauled in, garden planted, trees planted, etc, etc and so forth. 

Still not quite done...but looks much better when everything is green and growing...or maybe more like a jungle than a ranch...as evidenced by what we found after coming home from an overnight hiking trip last weekend.  On the plus side, it looks like we should have enough lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes to keep us in produce well into the school year.