When I first moved into my home in 1994, my backyard was a true blank slate. A Deck outside of the kitchen door sitting like a platform perched on a "rock". There were no trees. There was no grass. The ground was hard clay filled with small rocks left by some alluvial glacier 30,000 years ago. My first project was to create a circle path to house a garden. I also planted azaleas and a few trees...then a few more. After about 10 years, trees just started popping up on their own. Today my back yard is a true extension of the nearby woods. Decades on annual soil enrichment has paid off by creating a rich dark loam. I have lots of annuals, and EVERYTHING is green. Annually I have nesting Gray Catbirds, Carolina Wrens and Cardinals, along with House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Purple Finches, Chickadees, Robins, Blue Jays, Titmice, the occasional Nuthatch, Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker, American Star, Crows, a Red-tailed Hawk, Palliated Woodpecker, I even had a Brown spotted Bittern pay me a visit once! No double on his way to the nearby Sligo Creek.
Sitting on my deck has gone from roasting in the hot sun, to resting a place of shade and birdsong. Mostly by letting nature do its thing, I have created my own little slice of paradise. From the original pair of Canadian Hemlocks, two Redbuds and a Trio of River Birch. I have only added a Japanese Maple and Kwanza Cherry, while mother nature has tossed in two Dogwoods, a Swamp Oak, half a dozen Green Ash, a gorgeous Scarlet Oak, several Norway Maples, and a Live Oak. For some of these, I do have my little brigade of Squirrels to thank. But back to that little circular path.
It was laid with flat bricks, bound on either side by more bricks that were planted deep, long end to long end to keep those laid flat in a shallow trench from sliding. I'm sure there are better ways to have done this; however, my scheme has held up nicely over 30 years hence. When younger, I would take care to rake the fallen leaves and prep the beds for winter. Now, an "older gardener," I let nature close out its own affairs in the autumn and deal with my inertia at some point in the spring. That point was this past Sunday; Mother's Day. With no mother in sight, I liberated my Circles Garden from the dormant season's detritus. The process involves weed whacking the hell out of the new growth and caked leaves on the bricks. Then, leaf blowing the jetsam out across the wilds of the rest of the yard. Finally, removing any stuck schmutz with the "jet" setting on the hose. Start to finish including the concrete pathway about 2.5 hours.
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