It’s yard tour time again! Every year we take video and photo tours of our home so we can look back and see how it changes over time. We’ve shared indoor tours before and started an outdoor tour tradition last year, complete with a video of John bush-whacking through the yard. This year we wanted to do it again to track the progress of both large projects (like the patio and the deck) and smaller tasks (transplanting, seeding, and weeding). The difference from last year to this year is dramatic — partly because of the work we’ve done and partly because Mother Nature has run wild in the parts of the yard we haven’t touched.
Take a look at the backyard from last year:
And here’s the same spot now:
That little planting bed between the two paths filled in massively over the past 12 months. Photos don’t do it full justice — our video shows it better — but that butterfly bush has exploded and is now about 12 feet tall. It’s wild to watch these plants gain so much presence in just a year.
Here’s another angle of the backyard from last year:
And the same view now. The butterfly bush nearly hides the tree trunk that was visible a year ago — the yard feels completely different.
Looking back toward the house from the far end of the lot, here’s last year’s view:
And here’s that view now. The small purple bushes tripled in size and the house foundation is mostly hidden from this angle. A few readers asked about the bedroom nook — this photo helps explain why it’s there: the bump-out balances the large living-room window on the back of the house, and adding a large bedroom window next to a small one would have looked odd.
Here’s a shot from a little over a year ago, before many plants grew much larger:
And the same perspective today, with everything in bloom. The knockout roses on the left have exploded in size and the central planting bed — dominated by Sir Butterfly Bush, Sr. — has filled out so much the scene almost looks like a different yard. Aligning the three big trees in the background helps you match the before and after shots.
We also intentionally let the side yard naturalize, so it’s satisfying to see that area fill in. That’s part of the plan: keep mowing the front and back while making the side and rear feel woodsy, similar to the perimeter at our previous home. Here are a few side-yard photos from last year:
And the same spots now — definitely bushier. We’ve added a few river birches, so we’re looking forward to an even more wooded feel as they mature.
One area we didn’t document last year is the side lot seen from the street; here’s how it looks now. The wild grasses there are actually quite pretty.
From the corner of the front lawn, here’s last year’s view with the little hedge that used to surround part of the yard:
And here’s that same spot now:
For completeness, here’s what the front yard looked like last year:
And what it looks like now — one of our favorite views. Another favorite project was the patio makeover, which transformed from this:
… to this after the redo:
So yeah — a lot has changed. The back feels like a jungle, and while we haven’t tackled trimming it back yet, the front has evolved a lot since last year’s tour. Below is last year’s outdoor tour video to compare with this year’s updated footage; you can see how we landscaped the patio, tamed the front yard, added upgraded patio furniture, overseeded the lawn, and removed many of the small hedges that used to hide the house from the street.
And here’s this year’s outdoor tour (fair warning: the camera work is a little dizzying):
We’re glad to have this visual record of our yard in summer 2012 and are already curious what next year will bring. We’d like to clear some of the back jungle, create a grassy play area for Burger and Clara, continue naturalizing the perimeter, and maybe add more patio furniture or finish a deck. Maybe the carport will become a garage — who knows? It will be fun to watch what happens.
Do you document outdoor updates too? Do you ever walk around your property with a camera just to capture how it looks on a particular day? We hope to keep this tradition going — we wish we had recorded yearly outdoor changes at our first house, but live and learn.