Yard Work Report: How to Cover Dead Grass…

Forget the drought – we got an actual ten minutes of solid rain this afternoon. What we have is an area of the yard that simply refused to grow grass, no matter how much rain or watering we gave it, even after sodding the place. So this morning while my wife was doing some trimming of the hedges in the front of the house and I was mowing the back near the offensive dirt patch in the back, I decided enough was simply, enough!This is what the ugly, dirt covered, no grass having area looked like shortly after I started. You’ll note that by the time I thought to grab the camera (always – always have the camera handy), I had started to place some rocks around the offensive area.I had to till up the old dead sod (dirt really) that was a little higher than it should have been, and push that dirt down toward the other side to try to level things.Next, we made a trip over to Wal-Mart to grab some mulch. I know that we could have gone to Fertile Gardens or one of the other local nurseries and gotten some mulch by the yard, but to be real honest, I didn’t want to have to move several loads by wheel barrel to the back of the house when I could make a few sort trips with bags in the wagon.Here we are spreading out the mulch, and if you are keeping score – yes, I had to go back to Wal-Mart for another several bags. Here is a little hint from me to you: When the calculation chart says you need 14 bags of mulch to cover the area, you really do need 14 bags, not 8. That might save you a trip if you try this yourself.Okay, end product. We took some of the plants and such that we had on our deck and in the yard and filled in the mulched area. It ain’t Garner State Park, but at least I won’t have to mow the dirt anymore.

What did you do to your yard this weekend? Tell me about it.

Yard Work Report…

I know, just as it appears water restrictions are imminent, my wife and I think about doing a little yard work to spruce things up. Well don’t think we went overboard or anything – just a little project or two.First, in the front we moved a portion of hedges from one side of the sidewalk to the other. This allowed us to open up a small space where we could lay down some bricks and create a small patio.Probably not worthy of some HGTV special or anything, but it was enough of a change to make my wife want to go purchase a little bistro set. Isn’t that quaint?So if you drive by and see me sitting on the front porch drinking a cool one and staring at traffic, you’ll know I’m just resting from the moving of plants and rocks and paver’s. Or I’m liquored up.

I have mentioned before that our backyard is simply a disaster. When the little dog lived with us, she and the big dog would run around and wreak havoc on the place. Every attempt I made to grow anything was met with drought or dog. Worse, we have one stretch along our back fence that has been known to kill anything we plant. Hedges, rose bushes, even piles of dog crap turn white.So my wife got the idea that if we were to put a box back there and fill it with some good dirt, we could grow something. Hence, me using the tub as a saw horse to cut some timbers and get this project going.After notching out a few timbers, I formed them into a log cabin like box, filled them with some rocks taken from the front yard for drainage, added some old mulch I had been making, and put in some dirt.Next thing you know, we got some plants and the beginning of my new back yard is under way. We have a long way to go. But as I see it, that’s a 3 foot by 16 foot section of lawn I won’t be mowing.

What’s your weekend project? Tell me about it.