Ash Thoreau

I’ve been thinking about my backyard a lot lately—maybe a little too much. It’s turning into an obsession, and I’m struggling to resist the urge to spend all my money on making it perfect.

After countless spreadsheets and some quality time with a tape measure, I think I’ve finally figured out the layout. Instead of spreading garden beds across the north wall like I originally planned, I decided to keep them all on one side. This setup just makes more sense for irrigation. For now, I’m only focusing on the north border—the rest of the yard is a simple rectangle, so there wasn’t much need to map that out.

I debated whether to plan for a playground set, but in the end, I decided it would be overkill. As for the cattle panels, I’m still on the fence (pun intended). I’ll definitely start with just one this season, along with three garden boxes. As much as I’d love to go all out, I have to pace myself financially. But hey, no harm in planning for the long term, right?

The lavender is another undecided element. I love the idea of it, but I’m open to suggestions—if anyone has some cool plant ideas, let me know!

In the meantime, I made a reluctant trip to Home Depot (not my favorite place, but sometimes necessary) to grab a garden hose and a few other essentials. My next step is testing the sprinklers to check their spray pattern and figure out how many I’ll need. Before that, I need to mark out the grass border with some string. I’m hoping to tackle it tomorrow, but the weather might have other plans.

Either way, I’m having fun with it.