This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro. All opinions are 100% mine.
You know those projects that you put off for YEARS because the scope is scary?
Our backyard has solidly been in that category since we moved in.
Each year, it’s actually gotten worse instead of better because of drainage issues. Areas have changed from grass to mud and in turn, we spend less time out there. Which meant it was easier to be lazy and defer some other maintenance, like cleaning up tree damage from storms last year.
This summer, I’m determined to make the backyard somewhere we want to hang out in the fresh air. This whole project started with the simple plan of building a few simple raised vegetable beds. That’s still the first phase of our plan since I need to get the veggies planted ASAP.
Before we could space plan anything, I watched the yard on sunny days to figure out which areas would get enough sun for vegetables. Once I knew the general area, we started sketching out different options for both the raised beds and some expanded outdoor living space.
Here’s our wish list:
–Vegetable Garden
-Dining Space
-Outdoor Living Room
-Additional patio surface (so we have room for both dining & living spaces)
-Fireplace/Firepit -Build an Island Around the Grill
-Stop the constant yard flooding/swamp situation
Which is a pretty far cry from what we’ve got happening right now.
And here’s looking back at the house.
We had a day of major rain last week, so I snapped a couple photos to show how bad the yard gets. The darker area along the back is briskly flowing water. It travels under the fence from the neighbors to the left, and races through our yard fighting to get under/through our fence to continue on down the street.
And then the side yard. Yikes.
That’s the current reality, but here is a rough idea of the direction we’re heading.
As with anything, as overwhelming as this whole project is, we realized it could be broken down into less scary steps.
Honestly, the first one should probably be the drainage, but we’re starting with one of the vegetable beds so I can get a few things planted ASAP! We did the horrible #adulting thing and also called for a consult about the drainage. Until we know how the water situation will be solved, we’re holding off on the other two beds and the deck. Fingers crossed we come up with a solution that costs less than an airplane and takes less time than college.
Anyways…the raised beds will go in this area, along the fence as seen in the rendering.
After MUCH discussion, we decided to go with concrete blocks over wood for the base of the beds. They’re heavy to work with, but will look better long-term with less ongoing maintenance. Since the blocks are so heavy and bulky, we have to take multiple trips to the hardware store to pick them up. I was dreading having to take even more trips to get enough planting mix to fill in the beds.
Then, I found a way to have premium soil delivered from Amazon!
Have you seen the Miracle-Gro Expand ‘n Gro Concentrated Planting Mix? Once it’s delivered from Amazon, you mix it with water and it expands to 3x the starting volume. Because it starts out concentrated, it’s lighter to ship and to handle. 
I don’t have a green thumb, so I’m pretty excited that the Expand N’ Gro includes nutrients that last 6 months and that it holds water 50% better than traditional soil. I need all the help I can get!
Side Note: The Expand n’ Gro isn’t just for raised beds, it great for pots or to improve native soil in in-ground beds. Since it takes less space to store, I’m going to switch to using it for my indoor plants as I repot them into larger containers.
Now that we’ve got all the materials in the yard, we’re so excited to get the first bed built. I might have already gotten started!
UPDATE: See the first completed bed here!
I can’t wait to see how it turns out and share the results with all of you soon! I can almost taste the homegrown tomatoes already.
Amy says
Your side yard and backyard looks exactly how ours did. Each year the water got deeper and deeper until the point that we were afraid that it was going to compromise our foundation. We too consulted a group to address the drainage issue, and just like you they wanted an arm and a leg.
We ended up surveying the yard, bringing in a ton of topsoil and then began the process of putting in our own french drains. I am not going to lie…It was not a fun experience but it is amazing how well it worked. Here in Kansas we have basements and sump pumps…Ours would run for weeks and weeks because it could not keep up with all of the water flowing through our yard. Now it hardly ever turns on…..
Listen to your gut when it comes to your drainage! Before we put down the drains we tried everything imaginable to work around it…and it only made matters worse.
Good Luck!!!
Melissa George says
Ugh! That is exactly our situation with the water getting worse and worrying about the foundation! A guy is coming in two hours to discuss options, so cross your fingers for me! I’m REALLY hoping we can at least solve the side yard by the house soon, so we can build the deck, AND that he’ll give me the go ahead to do my full raised bed plan. I’m REALLY glad to hear you were able to solve your problem, even though it sounds like a brutal process to DIY!
Giselle says
It is going to look fantastic! I do want to caution you about one thing and that is the concrete blocks. I was just reading on Hometalk an article by a master gardener (definitely not me! Lol!) that concrete blocks shouldn’t be used if you are growing food. It has something to do with lime and other metals leaching into the plants and being carcinogens. There are ways of stopping the leaching that you could research if you really want to use them. I am not much of a gardener and would have done the same thing! Good luck and I can’t wait to see the final results!
Melissa George says
Yikes! It would figure that we didn’t want to use wood because I didn’t want treated wood leaching into the soil. Thanks for the heads up – I’ll definetely do some research!
Sue Nordstrom says
Hey Melissa
We had the same issue in our backyard in NJ. We had installed French drains but the installer used flexible pipe which didn’t hold up. We had to install new drainage pipes and dig a dry well (the town engineer suggested that) and since then no issues.
Good luck!
Melissa George says
OH man, I had that you had to do it twice! We’re in a little of the same boat because the builder came back to install a pop-up drain for us a couple years ago, but it didn’t even begin to help. We were glad we hadn’t paid for it! The good news is that the drainage guy came after I published that post and gave me the go ahead to do all three raised beds and said everything else I wanted to do is doable. He alluded to a price that wasn’t cheap, but wasn’t AS scary as my nightmares. We’re still waiting on the written quote though, so fingers crossed!
Martha M says
I see that the post is from 2017, did you manage to do it? That side yard looks like it might have been a multi year project 🙂
Melissa George says
Hi Martha, I’m so sorry I mnissed your comment a couple weeks ago! We haven’t done the patio extension yet, but you can see an update on the backyard situation here: https://www.polishedhabitat.com/outdoor-living-room-ideas/ The flowerbeds are in and the patio is now an outdoor living room!