Renovating Denver - One House at a Time

Grass, Trees, Plants, Trellis

We sprayed the hydroseed for the grass about a month ago. The backyard is really starting to green up. The front yard didn’t take as well … maybe not enough sun? It only gets sun for a couple hours a day.

We bought 5 trees for the property and had the nursery deliver and install them. One of the main factors in the trees we chose was Mike’s allergies. I sneeze often as well, so we both were interested in allergy-friendly planting. We got two Hawthorn clumps, a Chanticleer Pear, a Newport Plum, and a Summit Ash.

Our dog, Oakley, was also a consideration in the landscape. We picked a grass seed mix of RTF Fescue which is supposed to be durable and drought-friendly. We are strategically placing trees and other items for shade for him. He was recently digging in one particular area of the mulched part, so we decided to build him a trellissed area there for some shade over that area.

Here is how we built a shade trellis for our dog. We wanted it to be 6′ wide, so we spaced out 3 posts (4×4s), dug holes about 15″ deep, poured in Quickcrete, added water, stirred, leveled the posts and let them sit overnight.

The next day we cut the posts to the same height, then attached two 2×4s across all three posts, one near the bottom and one closer to the top. We attached the “roof” supports, which are 1×4s, with 3 screws each. We screwed in the redwood lattice to the 2×4s across the front, and then onto the roof 1×4s. Voila!