Landscaping - Spring 2008
May 28th, 2008 Posted in Home StuffApologies up front for not posting in awhile. I’ve been swamped at my job and now I’m working in the yard…
For the first time in my life, I really spent some time and effort doing something I never thought would come to be … a proper concern for landscaping. I’ve mostly lived in places where the lawn and other plantings were already established. No need for anything beyond running a mower and pulling the occasional offending weed. This past year has been totally different.
When I bought my new home, it barely had a lawn. The builder laid some sod out on top of some awful quality clay type soil. To make it worse, they only went about fifteen feet from the home with the sod. Much to my dismay, I was a complete idiot to NOT notice this. Most of the yard that surrounds my home is rocky clay and what I thought was the beginnings of a lawn was actually a deceptive patch of weeds that jumped in and grabbed on.
Last year, I mowed, watered, and weeded as needed and hoped that grass would grow. Now that almost a year has gone by, I can see that it won’t unless I help it. Thus, an experiment took place somewhere in between. In October a good friend came into town to help with a test bed of soil conditioning and fresh seed. Now that more than six months have come and gone, the experiment has been deemed a success. I have an area of fluffy green grass that makes the rest of the neighborhood (and most of my lawn) look like crap.
Due to the weird bit of rains though, I haven’t been able to repeat the experiment on a grand scale. The soil has always been too wet to work with or I was unable to get a break from work. Well, Memorial Day Weekend I had four straight days off from work. I spent those days toiling in my yard.
I used the roto tiller for two straight days until my hands were shaking constantly and covered in blisters. I then spent the following day spreading soil nutrients and conditioners to start the process of converting the soil into something more hospitable to a healthy lawn. Finally, I spent part of Memorial Day proper seeding and placing out top soil.
The downside is, I still a lot of my lawn left to go. For the time being, I’ve got a plastic covering keeping the soil from washing away in the rain. I’ll have to work when I can on the remaining bits until it’s done.
Four days straight though has taken its toll. My body is a wreck, I’m exhausted, my joints are killing me, and my mind cannot stop racing to find some other project in the yard to tinker with.
What I thought was a drudgery and chore has now become an addiction.
I’m now all about landscaping. I’m planting some trees this coming fall–I hear it is the best time to plant a new tree. My entryway to my home looks too plain so I’m prepping the place to put flower beds. I’m putting in some raised planting beds for a vegetable garden. This has become scary and exhilarating.
