It just seems like yesterday we were building the raised bed for our vegetables and planting new flowers in the yard, but today we officially started preparing for the winter. Crazy right? I really understand the saying “Time flies!” But before I get into preparing the yard for winter I should talk about the garden path.

In April 2008 we came up with a plan for a path in our backyard. The path was to be the central point for all landscaping, and it leads to our back seating area under the oak tress. We decided to start off small just to make sure we liked the look of it.

Beginning of the Backyard Path

Everything looked promising, and when Steffi’s parents visited (still April 2008) they bought her some more pavers for her birthday. We put a few more down and then all of a sudden it was March 2009 (almost a year later). How on earth did that happen?!

With the impeding visit of Steffi’s parents coming up in April we felt obligated to get those pavers laid, so we once again got busy! This time my mom came to supervise the project to make sure it was done correctly. Just check out her face in this picture. She really has that “motherly” attitude down. Okay, okay… she actually was helping. She wasn’t just supervising, but the photo is priceless. You can also see the path in the background.

Mom Supervising

When we finished this VigRX Plus time the path made it about to the halfway point. A little progress here and there and we were eventually bound to get there.

When Steffi’s parents came to visit they saw what a fantastic job we were doing with the path, so they gave us BOTH pavers for our birthdays! This time it was enough to finish the path! What a wonderful birthday present! (I know what you are thinking, but I’m not being sarcastic here.)

Fast forward to October… the pavers were still sitting in the backyard until yesterday. We finally finished laying them and we had just the right amount to make it to the seating area. Hooray for kind of finishing projects. We still have to remove all of the bricks and put some sand down, so until then we have a not-so-level path. It should at least hold us over until next spring.

Path towards the back fence

Looking back towards the house.

Path towards the house

And just as a reminder this is what we started with.

What we started with!

Today we started preparing the garden for winter. We did some general weeding and trimming, and we started laying down fresh mulch to protect all of the plants from the freezing temperatures. Last years we had some success with a few annuals that decided to return, but somehow we lost some perennials. Go figure. This year we are trying to be a little more proactive.