In October of last year we moved into a new rental home here in Panama. Since then I have been working hard whenever I have free time to spruce up the backyard for our children. It felt odd to be spending so much time and money on improving a rental house, but now that it is nearly complete I can say that it was absolutely worth it.
Prior to the move the yard looked like this...
It had a random wall in the middle and was loaded with rocks and dirt/mud areas. We decided to do four things: 1) have the wall removed, 2) plant grass, 3) add a small patio, and 4) make a garden.
We asked our landlord to remove the wall and they did so at no cost to us. Score!
After that came the most expensive aspect of the project. We spent $200 to buy grass to cover the neglected dirt areas of the yard. Out of anything we did this has made the biggest difference in terms of our ability to enjoy the space.
I found an amazing deal on pavers for the patio and installed them myself. In the end the patio cost us under $40 to complete.
To finish the project I constructed 3 raised bed gardens to grow vegetables and herbs. Each bed cost around $30 to construct making the project total approximately $330.
You spent $330 on a rental house?!
Yep! But take a look at the end result and you'll see it was worth every penny.
Pano image of the yard
Patio and several hammocks
The patio
Another view of the patio
The garden already has several herbs and habanero chiles ready to eat
What do you all think?
Was our project money well spent?