Finally – It is finished!

It is finished! Last night the last pile of rock was leveled out for the outdoor kitchen – the last rocks put into place on the hill – the final bags of mulch laid down – and the last few plants transplanted into the landscaping.   The retaining wall and barn landscaping are finally finished!  It has been a long continuous 3 month project – starting way back on the 28th of February when we began to transplant grasses into the hillside. The best part of all, other than a lot of labor – we were able to do it all with mostly reclaimed materials and little cash. Now – it’s all about maintaining and hopefully watch them grow into what we hope will become a beautiful back wall.  The plants are doing well so far – out of the 140 or so transplants – we had 135 survive.  The grasses should get to about 50% of their final size this year – and then next year should be full go. All that’s left now is to build the outdoor kitchen with the reclaimed barn materials and seed a little grass around the edges. What we really want is to sit back for one evening – fire up the grill – and finally…FINALLY enjoy a grilled meal on the patio!  We put some full before and after pictures at the end of the post to show the 3 month transformation.

The Final Totals:

135 transplants of grasses, daylillies and landscape plants that we started, divided or propagated from existing plants   TOTAL COST : $0

24 ton of boulder rock – 25 ton of limestone screenings – another 18 tons of #8 gravel for a topcoat – TOTAL COST: We were able to purchase it all for the cost of selling a few pergolas and selling off some extra barn wood from our reclaimed stash.

1275 bricks for the patio – gained for free from the flooring of the old barn we reclaimed.  TOTAL COST: $0

Patio Edging – this was the killer – TOTAL COST $125 – but such a must to keep the patio square. Really hurts when you have more in the edging you don’t ever see – than in the actual patio!

Drainage Tile – $125 – That includes the rental of the trencher and tile. Again – more labor than anything – but something we had to install so that the wall and barn stay put for a long time!

Mulch – 75 bags – TOTAL COST:  $75.00 – All purchased at .99/bag by buying damaged bags from a mulch distributor.  A little extra effort to get and lay down – but so worth the savings!

About 200 hours of labor – TOTAL COST – countless sore muscles, sore backs, two smashed fingers – a bruised shoulder and poison Ivy for Mary – but otherwise – $0

The massive bottle of Ibuprofen we went through – $13.50  :)

So here are some before and after pics:

The back hill on Feb 28th – putting in the grass transplants

The Hill with all rocks in place as of June 21st

The Front Patio Area – Feb 28th

The Barn Patio Area – June 21st. Still some minor things to attach to the pergola tops.

The back side of the barn – Feb. 28th

Back barn area – June 21st

Here are 1 year old transplants from last years project on the stand alone pergola – we hope our back wall plants can grow the same!