Why I Oughta...

A few weeks back, we had a few days of very heavy rain.  It came down in the morning, afternoon and evening.  For like three of four days straight.  The ability to work in the yard was almost zero because of how saturated the ground was in the yard and the beds.  But that rain event also exposed to me a few areas in the far reaches of our yard that I think are worth documenting here in order to be sure that as I begin to address the far back yard that these spots are giving proper consideration. Due to their location and distance for the existing water mitigation tools (Dry well, etc), I am thinking that the only way to really address some of these is through a combination of improving the soil's ability to absorb water (aeration, de-thatching) and through the changing of the grade. First up is this linear puddle that is maybe twenty feet long and sits between a rough (eventual!) bed and the yard from the trampoline to the neighbor gate on the southside.   The second

I've posted about this area of our landscape before - here - and discussed a potential solution to the sightlines that exist between my house and our neighbor to the north.  I'm posting this photo here because I'd like to reference it after we *solve* this area.  I'm actually not sure what the real solve is here - besides the creation of a brick paver walk down the middle.  That's just part of the solution, but doesn't solve any of the sightlights or help give this area a real sense of place.  It currently has just some grass and a few transplanted ferns tucked into the foundation bed.  That's it.  The stones you see under the gate are there to keep Lizzie from sneaking out.  You can go back and check out the post I made about Sky Pencil Holly that I could plant and use to screen to the north, but this post is here to help stimulate my thinking over the Fall on what to do in terms of screening.  You'll note that in that post, I shared the landsca