Though we are definitely on the tail end of the landscaping to the backyard, there is still a bit to go before we get to just enjoy maintaining the yard. The terracing and building of rock walls was by far the biggest part of our landscaping adventure, but now we want to be able to sit back and enjoy the view.

We have always had the top area of our yard to enjoy. It was beautifully landscaped when we moved in, and has some large cedars that block the view of the yard from the neighbours below us, providing a nice, hidden oasis to enjoy. Now that we have a big beautiful garden on the other side of those cedars, we want the option of being able to sit and look at all that hard work that we did.

We have also realized that our area is going to continue getting warmer, and that for the temperatures we hit in the summer, we no longer want to hide out in our air conditioned house until the sun starts going behind the hills. Luckily, we have more space at the bottom of the yard that we originally anticipated, so we have decided to put in a small above-ground pool to enjoy in our hot desert summers, as well as a patio with gazebo so that we can read a book, or just hang out and enjoy the garden space.

We had never considered a pool, because we just did not think we had the space. Since we have finally gotten to the back area and realized that we did, it was an obvious choice to add it in. Kurt works in a warehouse all summer in coveralls, with no AC, so we did a lot of trips to the river in the heat of summer last year for a dip to cool off.

Because we never considered a pool, we didn’t worry too much about making sure that our bottom garden wall was completely level with the fence. We were okay with a bit of an angled yard since we had only planned on doing a micro-clover & grass blend down there. Well, when you want to put a pool in, it is very important to have a level ground. So we began digging again.

To start the summer landscaping plans, the pool will be our first priority. If we get that in, then it won’t matter what work we do in the heat of the summer because we will be able to take breaks for a dip to cool off and then get back to it!

The first thing we did was edged in a path along the front of our garden bed. We wanted to make sure that we have plenty of access and can still get our large cart along the front of the bed as necessary. We also know that we want to leave at least a couple feet of space between the side of the pool and the fence because we want to be able to easily access the irrigation pipe that runs our fence line.

Our plan is to create a large u-shape with stack stone to frame the pad that the pool will sit on. This will allow us to level the area, but also not have to dig down quite as much as we thought we might since we will need to add in sand for the pool to sit on.

From the path that we edged, we started to dig down to level from the path to the fence. It was much more digging that we thought, and will result in a higher stackstone wall along the garden path that we originally thought. But that is ok. It will end up being a beautiful framing for the pool pad.

We measured the space and settled on an rectangular pool rather than a round pool. Both Kurt and I are tall so we wanted something a little deeper. Most of the round pools don’t get up to 48″ deep until it has a diameter of 18′. We don’t have that much space for a round pool. So we did some searching and found a rectangular pool that is 8′ x 16′ x 48″. It fits perfectly in the area we want to put it and provides plenty of space around it for access. We were lucky to find it since many of the reviews noted that although it is a fantastic pool, it is very hard to find and a lot of the people had to drive a few hours to another town to get one. Yay for us that our local store had them in stock.

For the past week we have been digging out the area for the pool to level it, and taking a lot of that dirt and back-filling the top wall. Thank goodness we had a place for some of the fill to go! And I guess thank goodness that we ended up with the extra soil so that we could fill behind that wall. It all apparently works out in the yard.

Once the pool is done, we will continue levelling the rest of the back of the yard. On the other side, we will put in a floating deck, which we plan to use composite board for. I don’t want to deal with re-sealing a wooden deck every few years, so although the composite boards are a lot more expensive, it think it will be worth it in the long run.

Once the deck is in, then we will likely start transplanting the grass from the front yard into the back area that is left between the pool and the deck. It won’t be a large area, which will be nice. Just a small patch to enjoy when walking from the deck to the pool.

It is going to be a busy, and expensive summer, but we are excited the finish up one of the last pieces of the landscaping.