A Garden for Anastasia: The Plan

J applied for and received a grant funded by the director of his department (how generous and wonderful is she?!!), so that we could spiff-up a corner of our yard and turn it into a "children's garden" for our daughter. When we told her we were going to all work together to make a garden just for her, she smiled. When Aunt Cathy gave her a set of garden tools for Christmas, she squealed. Here we go!

This is the "before" picture we submitted with the grant application, taken about two and a half years ago:

So, things are a bit different now:

Here's the plan:

This portion of our yard is mostly unused. It has a mini-orchard, including a lemon, plum, loquat (which you can hardly see behind the wagon in the first picture, but look at it now!), and pomegranate tree. Ideally, there would be more for our daughter to do in this area of the yard and it could really be "hers". She loves to collect and play with rocks, and would have fun helping to maintain a rock garden. A few butterfly bushes in a butterfly garden would host native butterflies, which she enjoys catching in the warmer months. A raised bed would allow her to have her own garden to plant seeds in the summer and just dig dirt year round. A permanent ground cover will help sustain this project, by helping to keep the weeds down when the summer rolls around (which is all we usually grow in this area of the yard at that time of year).

I welcome any ideas for how to tackle this project (I am more of a visionary when it comes to these sorts of things, and can only see the final result that is in my mind and not so much the steps it takes to get there!), as well as where to look for cheap/free materials. Stay tuned for our progress!