This past summer we removed an old playhouse which I didn't build that had reached end of life. If I had built it myself I might have considered saving it. This left an area of our backyard that was lower than the rest of the yard and looked quite blank. The decision was made to put in a small retaining wall in the back, a curbed area surrounding a garden and a pergola with a swing. The hardest part was clearing out some excess soil in the garden area and adding in some gravel as a solid base for the curbing. The retaining wall was just a single block and was made with channel block filled with concrete. It works great as its easy to construct with limited equipment.
The swing was from a plan from Lee Valley. I've wanted to do some Adirondack style benches for a while and this hanging swing seemed like a good start. Since it's such an established style I didn't see the need to try to design my own. The plans were pretty easy to use though I found the templates weren't always the right size. I chose cedar for materials because it was a cheap option from the home centre. For my next chair I'm planning on something longer lasting like white oak or cypress. I used a solid stain that has worked well for me and the hardware was all from the home centre. A nice quick project.
The final piece of the puzzle was the pergola. No real plans here. I sized it to fit the space and wanted something that I could grow vines up the side. I found some stainless steal 6x6 mesh that I drilled holes in the posts to fit. It seems quite sturdy and shouldn't rust. The only troubles I had were with attaching the post anchors. I was in a hurry with the concrete and didn't put them in at that time. Instead I drilled and used epoxy to set them later. I waited a month so drilling wasn't easy. The other thing I wasn't thrilled about was the height. I think the full 8 foot posts are a bit tall. We'll see how it looks once the vines fill in.
