Today I'm going to give you a tour of our half acre property here in Southeastern Washington.
Last year I retired from my real job and now my job is being the landscaper for this big property here.
We had a new house built for us last year, and it's really great...
And now i just spend my entire day taking care of the property.
I'm always weeding, or watering something, or planting something...
And just trying to keep this to be a little oasis here on our property in Pasco Washington.
I think the easiest way to show you all about my backyard is to start by drone. The aerial view!
And you can see that looking down on the property...
It's basically a gigantic lawn with a cement path going around it ...
And then that's circled by trees.
That's an awful lot of lawn to mow but the reason we wanted a big lawn like that is because...
Pretty soon we're going to be getting a dog...
And I want to have lots of room to use a "Chuck-It" to throw the ball all the way across the length of the yard...
And to get that dog running after the ball and tire the dog out.
There's also a reason that we have lots of trees on this property.
We have 73 trees on a half acre lot Which is an awful lot (of trees!)
And the reason is right behind me, over my left shoulder.
It's a giant RV storage building at my next door neighbor's house.
Basically a big garage for his big RV.
I call that giant building "The Monstrosity" because it's so large...
And it's just not not all that great for us to view from our backyard.
So, the whole point of all the trees is to cover up the view of "The Monstrosity".
And also, you know, we don't want to look at other houses here in the neighborhood all the rest of our life.
So, we want these trees to grow up and block the view of all the other houses.
So, let's get started by talking about all the trees.
We've got lots of maple trees on the property. Let's start with those.
There's four different varieties of maple trees.
The ones right behind me in the center of the lawn. Those are called Redpoint maples.
They're green now at this time of the year but the leaves will turn a brilliant red in the Fall.
Then on the east and the west side of the property there is a line of these red maple trees. They're Bloodgood Japanese maples.
So, they stay smaller than the big Redpoint maples but they'll get to 20 or 30 feet eventually.
Let me show you a picture of some mature Japanese maples like this...
That are located a couple miles from my house.
This is at an office building across town.
This gives you kind of an idea if you imagine seeing those in my yard...
What my yard will look like eventually when these are at their full size.
The third variety of maple tree here on the property is called a Red Maple.
And I bought these very very small very young and I got them super inexpensively because they were so small and young.
Basically it was just a bare root tree that was shipped to me dormant over the winter for just a couple of bucks a piece which is cheap when you're buying trees.
These I'm not that happy with and I may end up yanking these out next Spring...
And replacing 'em with something else... but for now here they are these little baby-sized maple trees.
Someday, but it's going to take a long time...
These would grow up to be very big beautiful mature maples, of course.
But I think it's just going to take too long.
It's a very slow growing maple tree.
So, I think I may change the plan here next year.
Consider these temporary!
And then the fourth kind of maple on the property is very unusual...
And I'm not sure how to properly pronounce it. I call it an Amur maple.
I've heard it pronounced as an Amur maple.
Let's just go with Amur for now though.
It's a bushy maple tree...
So, instead of having a big central trunk... One big trunk in the middle...
It's got multiple trunks.
And each of those will grow up basically to be its own little tree.
And this will get big and bushy over the years.
It's super-fast growing! When I planted these just a few months ago...
They were only about a foot and a half tall...
And now they're like six feet tall! All that just in a couple of months.
That's fantastic for me because I want these trees to grow fast and block the view as soon as possible.
In the back row, behind the maple trees, I've planted a row of spruce trees.
They're evergreens... So, in the winter when the maples have lost all their leaves...
The spruces should still block the views.
One of the most interesting things in the whole yard is inside this tree.
There's a nest of baby robins.
You might be able to, in the background, hear the mama bird squawking right now...
Because I'm just a little too close.
Let's go in for a really close look at those babies
There we go. One of them woke up for us!
It gets kind of windy here at times...
But I didn't want a bunch of bare dirt in the yard.
So, everywhere that there isn't a tree or lawn or some cement... Then I have rocks.
The Columbia River used to flow right through this property a long time ago...
So, there's a ton of rounded river rocks here on the property.
During the course of construction of the neighborhood i was able to get a whole bunch of rock and dirt...
Out of this property, and also from two of the neighboring properties.
I was able to sift out the rocks from the dirt. That took a long time... months and months over last winter.
Where I was working at my little makeshift rock sifter sifting rocks from dirt...
But eventually we got what you see now which is a nice landscaping with rocks covering all the bare spots of dirt.
Another kind of tree on the property is this Arborvitae that's right behind me.
That's a classic tree you see a lot that's used as a hedge.
You plant them close enough together and they they grow together and form a big wall to give you some privacy.
We have these Arborvitae planted right next to our hot tub.
The folks next door they're having their first baby here pretty soon...
And I'm sure there'll be some more babies to follow and eventually those kids when they grow up a little more...
Let's say when they're 10 years old... I'm sure they're going to do the same thing I did when I was 10...
Which is to peek over the wall to see what's on the other side.
And since our hot tub is right on the other side of their wall...
We have the Arborvitae planted to give us a little privacy.
We've got a very big patio here in the backyard.
I spent some extra money when we had the house constructed to have lots of cement poured back here for a very large patio...
So that I could put out lots of loungers and chairs and tables...
Because I like to spend a lot of time out in the yard.
A little later I'm going to show you the front yard, and...
In just a few seconds here I'm going to take you over to our side yard where I've got a big garden of flowers and vegetables.
You'll see that right after this!
Now we're on my side yard and this is where I have flowers and vegetables planted in a raised-bed garden.
I created everything you see here by myself including moving all the cinder blocks to make the raised bed garden...
Moving all the dirt in here.
My brother-in-law out on his farm had a bunch of dirt that he brought over here in a big dump truck...
And I mixed that in with some compost and have some really good dirt for my garden now.
We've got flowers... lots of 'em.
And then also lots of vegetables growing.
Everything from tomatoes...
To Walla Walla onions...
Lots of strawberries...
Just all sorts of fun stuff over here in my flower and vegetable garden.
In these little pots these are carnations that I grew from seed.
I've got lots of them because carnation is my wife's favorite flower...
So, I want to grow her lots and lots of carnations and they're growing very very well.
We live in Washington state and it's really easy to grow apples here.
So, I've planted four different varieties of apple trees here in the yard.
This is a red delicious apple. The classic.
This one, this is my favorite apple. This is called a Cosmic Crisp.
I don't know if you've had one of these before. This is the latest thing here in Washington state in the apple industry.
This apple tree here is called an Akane apple and the only reason I bought this is to use it as a pollinator for the cosmic crisp apple.
And this apple tree right here is a Macoun apple.
Again, I bought that as a pollinator... for the red delicious apple.
Now we're out here in the front yard.
I've got a couple of additional trees out here. There's two big Redpoint maples in the front yard.
Well, they're not big yet, but they're going to be someday!
And then also there's a Japanese maple planted by the entryway.
I've also got some Rhododendrons planted out here...
And azaleas...
And hydrangeas out here in the front yard.
And planted here in the rocks by the street is a plant called a creeping red Sedum.
And this is a ground cover that apparently I'm told has a very brilliant red bloom that'll come to it eventually as these grow a little bit older.
I think it'll be pretty and add some color out here in the front.
Along the property line with my next door neighbor these bushes that I planted here these are called burning bushes.
They go a brilliant red color in the Fall.
Now I've moved into the side yard over on the west side of our property.
I'll show you a couple of interesting things I've planted along the block wall fencing here on the west side of the house.
These beautiful pastel colored flowers that's called Moss Verbena.
I planted all those from seed that I got from Amazon.com
Those have come in beautifully.
And then this taller plant right among the Moss Verbena... That is a privet.
It's going to grow up to be a big hedge. I've got lots of these planted in a line here, all along the fence.
And this is going to create a big hedge that hopefully will be even taller than the fence someday...
And add just a little more privacy, and...
Cover up the block wall here on this side of the house
If you've seen some of the model train videos that I've shot here in my backyard you've probably seen the Zim sign before.
This is the new and improved version of the Zim sign.
I've planted some purple ice plant around it to add some color.
And then this other plant providing some color in the backyard is called Phlox. P - H - L - O - X
I had never heard of these before but my sister has some in her yard and hers are spectacular!
They're about two feet wide or so, and maybe a foot or two tall...
They add a lot of color. Mine have pink blooms on them.
And I'm hoping that really get lots of pink color back here in this section of the yard as these grow a little bit bigger.
Well, that is it for the tour of my backyard. I thank you for watching!
This is where I spend a lot of my time every day.
I just putter around out here weeding, and watering and...
Just planting things and having fun...
Living my retired life up here in Washington state.