I guess this is what they mean by "the cheap seats"

As you can see we've been busy taking away in order to add to the backyard. All of the dirt you see here was once non-native invasive shrubs (we seriously think some of them were man-eating). These things were wicked, thorny, vines and shrubs and we had the excavator pull them out with a back-hoe so that we could put in some more ecologically sound species along the back property line. As much as our friends think we should just put in a set of bleachers and charge admission for the baseball games, we decided against it and will instead put up a privacy fence (think Fenway Park's big green wall) and some native shrubs to give us a softer and more natural look along the property line - without fear that if the kids walk too close to the landscaping that they might get pulled in and swallowed by the vines a la the Robin Williams movie Jumangi.

You can see the wetland pond in the picture if you look closely. There is a white pvc pipe that flows into the pond. We'll be planting wetland trees, shrubs and plants in this area to try and bring in wildlife such as birds, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, toads, and turtles. We already have some frogs and turtles, along with deer and rabbits!

View from the ball fields . . .

Landscaping - sort of . . .

Here is where the wetland pond will go. It's basically a detention basin for the water that comes off of our driveway and our neighbor's property. We piped it underground to this location

The clearing that we did to the left of the shed added about 4000 sf of area (40' x 100') to our back yard. This area will be used for a wetland and part of the general back yard. The area to the right of the shed that we cleared is about 50'x40' and much of that will eventually become a vegetable and fruit garden.