THINGS WE DID WHILE THE GARAGE WAS BEING BUILT

We stayed close to home most of the garage building work days and accomplished many of our own smaller projects that we had planned for the season.  

We started early in April when we purchased 6 trees to plant along the east and south boundaries of our property.  We were able to get locally grown Brandon elms, and Greenspire and American lindens to add privacy to the back yard and to act as a sound barrier from highway noise.  They were delivered on a rainy day and we planted them right away and also surrounded them with fencing to protect them from deer browsing.  It was a full and very wet day and they didn't look like much more than sticks.

Planting day

Two months later

We worked on our main deck by shoring it up in the middle between the main beams to provide more stability to the deck boards.  It always felt a bit shaky when you had a couple of people walking around on it.  Now it is solid enough for a whole gang.

  

We had some sunny weather in April and May so I decided to stain the original fence that borders the garden and the west side of the property.  It was a big job of 28 panels and the wood was quite dry.  The lattice work tops were time consuming to stain.  I used both a roller and a brush and got it done in a few days.  Before and after photos:

Since the deer don’t like to graze on ornamental grasses, we created a grass bed by the deck and planted 2 varieties of tall grasses.  They are easy to maintain and will look great when they grow up to the deck railing height.  I like to cut the dry reeds in the spring and display them in large vases as decorative accents.

We spent time establishing a border walkway around the garage and tying it in to the existing landscaping outside of the shop.  Bit by bit, we are reducing the lawn and creating neat edges that make lawn mowing much easier.

The biggest project that we had going on was the building of a new deck where the old hot tub used to be but I’ll save that for the next posting.