Side Yard- Before

 This is the side yard from the corner of the driveway.  We are looking Northeast here, at the back of the shed and the shelter for the swing.  Up against the shed on the south side is one Sunchoke that I planted this spring.  It has a thick 3-4 inch trunk that fell into the shed and has sent up a bunch of branches from that.  It is blooming now and showing it's sunflower heritage.  After the first few frosts it will send all of it's energy to the roots, and anytime after that I can dig them up.  Looking forward to seeing what that one plant produces.  Next to it in the corner is a forsythia.  It will probably be coming out, as this is where the plans show a high hoop house and a potato contraption!

 Above is a picture looking north from the end of the drive.  In front of the gutter trellis is the small Japanese maple.  It is planted on a little hill.  You can also see the Pampas grass at the corners of the shelter.  We cut them back to 8" this spring, so they will be a good source of mulch!  The picture on the right is taken from the gutter trellis looking east.  The light building is my neighbors garage.  The square on the right edge is a load of bricks I had delivered for a flower border along the fence.  In front of it is a ground up tree trunk and roots. In the picture below you can see the second pile and in the middle is the current flower bed with hostas, daylilies and autumn sedum.

This picture on the right is looking south to the street and shows the Japanese Maple and the redbud.  This whole side yard will become the orchard with lots of lower level plants and paths throughout.