Backyard Garden Makeover

We've been living in South Africa for 16 months now. We love where we live, our neighbors, and our house but when we moved in we were quite disappointed in the outdoor garden space. The former tenants of our house owned 5 large dogs, which as you can imagine was not conducive to having a nice garden. So when we arrived in March 2013 the backyard was mostly dirt with some small patches of grass hanging on. There were only two plants in the backyard, very spindly looking lavender bushes.

After settling into the house for a week or so we decided to start watering the few patches of grass that remained to see if we could at least bring the grass back to life. We also found an awesome gardner, Isaac, who - one day a week - has worked magic in our yard. 

The pictures below show the transformation from ugly, dirt pit, to fantastic yard that we love to hang out and watch Piper play in! 

Isaac dug out the flower beds and in the process excavated enough rubble (houses here are typically built on top of the rubble that already existed) to fill two trucks. It was pretty impressive. We also had him install/extend the patio on this side of the yard. In the process he dug up and transplanted most of the grass throughout the yard into the dead areas. We now have a great green lawn all year long!

It's also winter here in South Africa and as you can see that has not stopped many of our flowers from blooming (I took these pictures two weeks ago, there are even more blooming now)! It does get chilly in the morning and nights during the winter, but the days are great, usually in the 60's or low 70's. It is fantastic to have a year round garden that we love! I will take more in the middle of summer as the plants grow like crazy then!