So guess what?
The grass in our yard is starting to SPROUT. I didn't think it would actually happen. I mean, I know we prepared everything right, but I still had my doubts.
Then, this morning I looked out my window and there's a lovely green carpet starting to poke out of the dirt. Just lovely.
brett at 12:14 PM on May 04, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
We seeded that bitch.
I'm tired and sunburnt. More explanation tomorrow.
Update: So I spent this entire weekend knee deep in dirt. Well, not literally, but I was definitely encrusted in mud and covered in a full-body sunburn by the time Sunday night arrived.
I spent most of Saturday just doing random maintainance crap around the yard, picking up sticks, digging out saplings, cleaning up the edges around the fence. That kind of thing. I also tried to destroy the far East entrance to the yard, which proved to be incredibly difficult because there was a sort of woodchip base ontop of a tarp, which was also covered in hundred of rocks.
Rolling up the tarp was futile, as the rocks made it too heavy to lift, and it simply ripped in half.
That meant it had to be done by hand. Ugh.
Ben Walter spent a lot of time sitting there picking up pebble after pebble until it was all finished. I had started a collection of rocks in a bucket, but he finished it--and I'm very happy I didn't have to. What a headache.
After that was all done, Ben and I took turns tilling the shit out of the yard, just to spread some oxygen around and get the dirt mixed up. Though we had removed a lot of the debris, completely cleaning it out proved impossible, so we went through several cycles of tilling, raking and bagging. The tiller was actually a lot of fun. It sounds a lot like a chainsaw, but there's no reason to worry about severing a limb when using it.
I also dug up the flowerbed next to the house as best I could, and removed a giant concrete slab from the yard. I think it's original purpose was for a downspout to rest, though nearly all of our gutters are gone, so it was pointless to leave it there.
Sunday was more of the same. Cleaning up shit around the yard.
I got up relatively early and got my big red truck that I had stashed at my grandfather's house. I also stole his mower while I was there so that we could trim the front lawn a bit (overgrown with dandelions).
The next hour and a half was spent moving the giant pile of wood from the ground, to the truck. Nice workout that turned out to be. Then I hauled it back down to my grandpa's place and unloaded it (since his garbage man will pick up that kind of shit, and ours won't).
Speaking of my grandpa, tomorrow is his 86th birthday. Eighty-six. Man that's amazing.
After packing all the wood up, I went and bought some wire fencing and staples to keep the dog out of our yard. Around the edges of the yard, I dug a trench into which I sunk some long, thin boards. I reason that this will provide some decent edging to the actual yard rather than having it run directly into the neighbors property. Once the boards were in, I took to installing the fence, which proved to be pretty simple, though I think there must be a better way to do it, because it still looks a bit loose. I suppose if I had some help it could have turned out a bit better.
The final bit of yardwork for the evening was the seeding.
We actually got it done.
The sun was starting to set, but Spadt and I were determined. We took turns tilling the yard, then we spread in a bunch of new lawn fertilizer, and tilled again. After that we sowed the red fescue seeds into our pulverized lawn and watered it down.
Hopefully in a week or two we should have a nice, thick, grassy carpet to play on.
brett at 06:10 PM on April 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
There's a bit more to elaborate on after yesterday's post.
Spadt and I spent more than a few hours in the yard yesterday, and with the help of a new shovel and rake, managed to do a decent job of tilling the yard by hand--though I did bump in to Junebug last night, and he has confirmed that an actual tilling machine is in his possession.
We pulled up a ludicrous amount of roots, bulbs and tree stumps, and discovered that we had a wide variety of onions growing back there.
If we hope to seed the lawn on Sunday, we are going to need to remove the rest of the debris, which has been piled up, but more importantly, we are going to need to zero in on the fence line, which is where a lot of crap is still stuck. The fence toward the front of the yard is by far the worst. There is a tarp there that has tons of mulch and rocks piled on top of it, and we need to some how remove that. It doesn't help that it's crawling with ants.
After removing the rest of the crap, and cleaning up the edges, we can toss on the fertilizer, till it and water it in. Then we can lay the seed.
I'm still a bit concerned about the fence though, as we will need to put something up to keep the neighbor's dog out of the way. After our work yesterday, I realized we have a lot more natural fertilizer in the yard than I had first thought.
Other, secondary plans for the weekend: load up the truck with the wood scraps. Mow our front yard. Get chainlink. Dig up the flowerbed next to the house.
brett at 10:30 AM on April 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Spadt and I hit it hard this afternoon.
It looks like we may actually be able to seed the lawn by Sunday, and the forecast says that the weather is going to cooperate as well. There's still a ton of minor stuff to be done, but today we accomplished a lot, and this seems like it may be realistic after all.
brett at 07:22 PM on April 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
The destruction of a tree, the destruction of a fence.
So satisfying. Not looking forward to loading it in a truck.
brett at 12:56 AM on April 19, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Today I had a chance to (finally) talk with Spadt, who came home around 6 p.m.
We both agree that the best course of action is to till the entire yard, and prepare it for seeding. Hopefully, with work over the next few days we can clean up the debris, and by Sunday morning be ready to toss down some seed. The tilling machine should be at our house by Wednesday, and we also will be gaining a chainsaw and other tools to remove the tree stump and dismantle the dog house.
Only spent about an hour clearing out the brush today, due to work, but did manage to make some progress. The thing is, every time I go out and look at it I get lost and just have no idea what to do. There's so much junk, so many weeds, so much to remove before we can begin building again. Oh, and that's not to mention that Spadt and I broke the shovel today. I guess it was about time for a trip to the hardware store anyway. I need tools.
This view is looking toward the tree stump and the fence that our neighbor's dog destroyed. We plan to destroy the rest of the fence, and buy some chain link to staple up, since the posts are still firm in the ground. Hopefully that will keep the dog out (I accidentally stepped in a few of his landmines today, yuck).
Another view, this time facing east. It looks like this portion of the yard (which will be the main grassy area) should get enough sunlight from both the East and West to get it growing well. Spadt suggested laying rocks in the path that lies between the flower beds, as it is thin and will be handling a lot of traffic, probably too much to grow any substantial grass.
I also suffered my first battle injury today when our rose bush decided it wanted to grab on to my heel. Ouch.
More to come.
brett at 11:40 PM on April 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Fixing up the yard is daunting. But at least the area we're dealing with is small and won't be overwhelming, nor overly expensive. It will, however, be a lot of work, but it should make a nice summer project. So a good step to take would be to outline a list of things that need to be done in order to really get the ball rolling.
The best approach, it seems to me, would be to hurry and seed the lawn as soon as possible, since it is sitll early Spring, if we move fast and get the yard tilled and planted we could have grass as soon as May 20th, if not earlier. Afte the grass is seeded the flowerbeds and so-forth can be taken care of. We will need to get a tiller, seed, a hose and water as well as various fertilizer supplies. Luckily, there really isn't too much area to seed, since a lot of the backyard is bricked off flowerbed areas.
In the short-term we will need to destroy the dog house, have the lumber picked up, and finish removing all the brush and weeds covering the areas that will become grass. We can also pick up the seed and other supplies such as hoses during this time.
One of the main parts will be to ensure that we have a tiller and a way to spread the seed. We should be able to borrow the former from JB, though I'm not sure about the latter yet.
brett at 01:24 PM on April 17, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
Since Spring is here, it's time to clean up the yard and get it ready for summer.
No easy task at 1324 S 11th St.
The backyard is a veritable jungle that is home to a variety of plant (and animal) species that I've never encountered in my life. Just looking at the backyard was intimidating enough, let alone actually wading into the tangle of weeds, grass, flowers, bushes, etc, that covered the ground. The yard has probably been neglected for a decade at least, if not longer. I figure probably since the late 80s. The prior owner was clearly interested in gardening, but whoever took over after he/she left, has let the yard fall into a state of complete disrepair.
Deciding where to begin was a serious decision in itself.
So I didn't decide. I just jumped in and started clearing shit out of the way.
After two days of work, I have cleared out nearly all of the vine growth that covered the back of the house/power lines/trellises, and also removed a huge amount of random debris that was scattered throughout the yard. Tearing down the dead vines was quite a task. Last summer, they covered the entire West wall of the house, had grown across the street via the power lines, and had nearly made the backdoor inaccessible. Quite the invasive little guys.
I cleaned out all the planters and turned the soil, and actually planted a few marigolds just for fun, though the serious planting has yet to begin.
The brunt of Sunday's work was clearing underbrush (sticks, weeds, etc) and tearing down a dead tree--which I was able to do using a rusty handsaw, a machete and my bare hands. How long it has been dead is a mystery, but it succumbed to almost everything I threw at it, and was eventually reduced to a stump and a pile of branches and limbs. There's something quite satisfying about destroying a tree with little more than your own brute strength.
I also spent a considerable amount of time turning one large flowerbed, and removing pieces of a fence that the neighbor dog had destroyed.
I filled 6 large lawn bags.
So this is where we stand after two days of work, viewed from the back porch. It doesn't look like much yet, but you have no idea where we started. The stone path that in the center of the picture was invisible due to the years of grime that had been deposited on top of it. The dirt against the garage (once a flowerbed) was teeming with weeds, and in the upper right of the photo there was a large, large tree (still in the photo, but as a large pile of sticks). I really should have taken a picture of what it looked like from the very begininng, untouched, neglected...
And here is just the beginning of what is sure to become a massive collection of yard bags. I will eventually need to call the garbage men, but for now I'll store them in the giant two stall garage.
Monday's work will probably be more of the same: clearing out debris, fighting with two rose bushes, and destroying weeds. Also, there is a doghouse I need to reduce to rubble.
Question: where can I take the huge amount of sticks/fence wood that I have and no longer need?
brett at 11:17 PM on April 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)
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