This is the new perspective I’ve gained from the private nap location under the new pergola we put in. I should have committed to this years ago! I never thought of a pergola as sort of a permanent umbrella, especially one with louvers that you can let the light in when you want it. On these hot summer days it’s so soothing to let it create all this shade.

The plants don’t seem to be any worse for wear. The arbor tunnel we created is also adding to the privacy of this location, and it’s very calming with the fountain. This is my most raggedy outdoor couch, which I updated with newer cushions, but it is wide and perfect for stretching out in the shade of this pergola, with plenty of room for dogs to jump onto me. My tomato plants are doing well, and some lemons are coming in. Hopefully the limes won’t be too far behind.

Here are the before pictures and then the after video of Shea finishing up the sawing of the branches, which haunted me for years. Especially after the fire, I’m not willing to take any chances with tree branches touching my house. This will also decrease the daily dropping of fruit and leaves this time of year. One of these branches was so heavy it fell pretty violently on its own, so I knew it was time to borrow our friends’ reach saw, and we got this done. Hopefully, it will be years from now before this needs to be done again.

I’m going to be brainstorming ways to build a safe and stable ramp for this potential pitfall. The dogs have already adapted to it, but of course, my blind dog doesn’t explore the upper tiers at all. I’d like it to be safe for everyone to be able to take this route, though, instead of always having to “mind the gap.”

Pergola build finished! Shea did a great job. We also added an aluminum table underneath it for outdoor meals and/or meetings. This table extends for up to TEN people comfortably. It also sounds like a GREAT size for a Lego train set that is currently in the garage on fold-out tables. 🙂 The louvers on the pergola are very easy to open and close. Half of it can be closed, and half can be open. We’re also going to raise it, as I did with the gazebo over the hot tub, with cinder blocks. It has curtains and screens as an option as well. It adds some privacy, but mostly it’s better than having an umbrella with limited effectiveness to keep the sun off of people without completely blacking out this part of the yard. It’s also really nice that with the flat roof, it really doesn’t detract from the view from inside the bedroom and wet room with the big windows looking out to the garden.

I’ve literally been thinking about various coverings for that area for years. I bookmarked so many styles and worried about killing my plants, but this gives me the best of both worlds. I went high-end on the table, which will last forever and doesn’t need an umbrella, but is perfectly suited for outside.

My backyard has a secret lookout, which is a fun place to go to be off-grid (although there is definitely a signal there). There is no power or screens unless I bring one. This is where I have my eggshell swings, and I’m brainstorming how I’m going to make improvements. The balusters on the original fence dividing the “bamboo forest” are falling apart, but I had these two wood pallets that I was temporarily using as a sort of extended deck. They were not balanced or working that well to support the swings and brought them up higher than I would like anyway. Even though I have some chop and drop to clear, I moved the smaller pallet up against the bannister, and now there’s more protection and a delineation between those two parts of the yard. For now, the larger pallet is just up against the fence, but there are tons of very cool videos showing so many different ways those can be repurposed in the garden and even made into furniture. Sometimes it just takes bringing my coffee to various areas of my yard, plopping myself down, and enjoying the dogs and thinking about how I can improve various areas of the garden to become more utilitarian and aesthetically pleasing (hopefully). Here are the before-and-after pictures, with the more organized layout being the after, of course.