Backyard layout

So, in order to show you some of what we have been doing (ok, what Papa Dude and the kids have been doing) in the backyard, I thought we should start with some shots just to show you the whole backyard, so you can see how it is laid out. I took all these shots from the back deck of the farmhouse. (Feel free to enlarge the pics by clicking, Auntie P) We will start with the far left (south) side of the yard. You can see the cedar tree (the treehouse tree) branches at the left top, and part of the play structure in front of our NDN's (Next-Door Neighbor's) fence. You can see how we are trying to do a curved terrace here, following the lay of the land. Down in the curve, there are some stumps and rounds from where we took down the old plum tree (don't worry- we have about 6 more in there), but we are hoping to add more fruit trees here and make this part of the yard the orchard. So far, we have several plums, green and Italian, 2 apples (though not very healthy or of a good variety), and a peach tree. In the bottom right of the photo (where the round sled thing is), you can see just the corner of my biggest garden bed.
So here is the rest of the big garden bed; you can see that I am keeping it real by showing you that I never even pulled out all the dead tomato plants from last year. There are three little green plum trees that we took as starts from the old green plum tree at my mom's before we cut it down 10 yrs ago. They are finally settling in and doing well. You can see piles of wood yet to be stacked, and our interesting industrial view. In the summer, all we see is green trees, and then in the winter, we have this view. I actually enjoy watching the activity down there. You can see barges, and hear train whistles, etc. Along the little wooden fence are several honeysuckle plants that are just beautiful and smelly-good in the summer.

We have just a half acre here, but not all of it is usable. Where the trees start in the back there, the yard slopes down to a major road, and then the Interstate is right behind that. We are slowly terracing this hillside, there are trails down about halfway, and over the last 5 yrs, the Dude has cut out many dead trees, which the three of us then hauled up the steep hillside. We figure we have gleaned over 4 cords of wood from the hill behind our and the NDN's houses.
Then we have the chicken yard (with a very huge, old apple tree), what is left of my clothesline, and the shed, with a smaller garden bed in front. You can't see my asparagus bed well, but it is there, too. And yes, that is my dead water heater in the bottom corner. Just keeping it real folks.
Here is the blueberry bed, the old birch stumps, the herb beds, pear tree, etc. The white tripod is where my grapes are- they have done horribly the last 4 years, and I am worried about them. The sidewalk there at the edge of the house leads to the basement door and my studio.
Okay. Whew! Look for more backyard photos in the next post.