Great thread, Hazeleyes!
I can so relate! Though my dh just wanted the typical yard .... shrubs, a tree or two, and lot & lots of lawn. Ugh.
Over the past 10 years, I've added garden beds. One here, one there, another one over there, and then I expand them and keep expanding them. Today, our backyard only has one long strip of lawn which is probably only a fourth of the backyard. I will leave that strip just so my dh and son have something to mow. LOL! My dh sometimes gets annoyed and says our backyard looks like a jungle! (Yes! My gardening style is "Jungle" with a capital J!) But it is a jungle with a purpose. I garden for butterflies and hummingbirds as well as other wildlife. It does have order to it and does look nice to me and most all my women friends. Their husbands on the other hand agree with my dh. They like the typical expansive green lawns, shrubs around the outline of the house, and a tree or two. LOL! No accounting for taste!
I am currently working on the front yard. Had an area near the front of the house that I turned into a nice butterfly & hummingbird garden several years ago. We had to have our septic drain field replaced last year. We couldn't get replacement grass to fill it back in (too much rain and no sod delivery), so I jumped right on it and expanded the front bed out some more in one day!
I recently planted a small nectar tree in the east corner of the front yard with a small garden bed around it. That small garden will be expanded next year! LOL! Once I mark my spot, it's a done deal. I also have ideas to add garden beds to both sides of my yard. I do it gradually. Sometimes he doesn't even notice until he mows the yard. (He switches off with my son doing mowing. So he might not see anything new for 3 weeks .... or longer in the winter time!) I can add more in that short time! LOL! We work different days. So I do my gardening on my days off when he is working. Works out perfect!!!!
If he had any doubts before, he now knows I claim the entire yard. But there is a plus side that he will admit to .... a LOT less mowing! And he does enjoy walking around the backyard or sitting in one of seating areas to enjoy all the blooms, too! But won't admit to that very often. Sometimes doing it gradually and in stages works well when you have someone who doesn't want to budge on their ideas of what a yard landscape should look like. Ten years later .... he doesn't care what I do with the yard as long as it is "me" who maintains it! And that is a-okay with me!
