A couple of weeks ago, husband and I spent a whole day with a sort-of-pronged post digger type dirt mover-thingy and a shovel, scraping and scratching away at the thick and densely tangled layer of weeds that covered our back yard. That day of immense effort got about 1/8 of the back yard de-weeded enough that it could be seeded. Oh my.
So after learning that a light-duty tiller rental from the oh-so-nearby Home Depot (even I with my girly arm could probably throw a rock from our front porch and hit it) was only $32 for four hours, it seemed a better use of our time.
So last Saturday we undertook this total back yard do-over. It was time — not much has happened to this back yard in the seven years we’ve owned this house except a lot of dog shit.
Farmer Ted and his magic tiller dug up most of the yard. I even tried my hand at the tiller and let it drag me around a little. The yard waste dumpster in the alley was empty in the morning when we started and F-U-L-L when we finished. My arms may never recover.
Our “helpers” got tired out too, but mainly from all the overseeing they had to do.
It’s going to look a little weird for a while and not just because of the funky straw grow mats we put down. Hopefully soon there will be grass or some semblance of grass though. If the mangy South City robins manage to eat all the grass seed, we will end up doing sod but the effort will still be worth it in the end — the yard needed to be tilled up to allow anything besides this tangled mess of weeds to grow.
And . . . this little patch at the end of the yard that was for a few years an overgrown garden may soon look like something that resembles this:
I couldn't find the original source for this image but it's gorgeous. I want to go to there now!
A little “moment of zen” in our own backyard . . . . more to follow!
Living Analog 