New Fence & Gate

We finished the gate last night (in the rain...grrrrr), and the fence is all substantially complete, except for a few trim items to cut and complete. Otherwise it is done. Now on to the back fence, deck, and planning the stone/brick pathways through this and the plantings. This fence will connect around to a back fence which will then connect to a deck off the screened porch, and the kitchen. The ultimate goal is to just be able to open the kitchen door and let a future doggie outside. Many things have to be moved/relocated/gotten rid of (such as the yuccas stabbing away at me while i work on the fence), Steven is working that all out in his head. Part of the solution involves us going to dig up lots of weeds (they are gorgeous weeds) from Laiyee's hill to plant next to the house. They do really well in full sun. Maybe Steven will post some pics of the few we already have near the back of the new fence.

The REALLY hard part is the prep work for the pathways, flagged patio, and pea gravel paths and parking area. We have ALOT of digging to do to properly prepare a lower gravel bed, then sand, then pea gravel or stone or brick. Somewhere in there is a permeable fabric layer--to keep mud from squishing up. Particularly if we're going to put cars on it, our rather bog-like backyard is going to need some work to keep the mud from squishing up. It would almost be easier (and probably cheaper) to put in concrete, but we've been resisting that, mostly for aesthetic reasons, but also to just avoid sealing in another big chunk of our tiny .1 acre of earth. Anybody have any advice for us on this? We were going to go to the library and see if we can find a book or a dvd or something. I found a few DIY websites, but find a bit of conflicting information (such as where the permeable layer goes).