The internet as well as lawn and garden experts will tell you that bermuda grass and full shade are not a good mix. In fact, no matter how much you water, fertilize, and "baby" the grass portion of this combination, it won't grow. Even when you pay a tree expert to come prune the trees, it still won't help. Trust us, we know!!!
Last April, Austin and I made a decision to kill our entire yard with Round Up. All 2100 square feet of it! We had a pretty sizeable tax refund coming our way, so we thought it would be a good investment and something we could enjoy for however long we live in this house. Chemicals, check! Sprayer, check! Numerous steps back and forth over the entire yard, check! Dead grass, check! All was going according to plan. Until May 1. Tragedy struck. All of a sudden, our yard was the least of our concerns. We flat out didn't care AT ALL. When you lose someone you love, only family matters. Only time with loved ones matters. Only picking up broken and shattered emotions matters. Only hope for healing matters. Who cares about a stupid, dead yard anyway? Deuce was gone. None of us would ever be the same.
One year later, fifty-one weeks to be exact, we all miss him even more than we did the day before. The one-year anniversary of his death is just around the corner, so we all cling extra tight to our thoughts, memories, and closeness we each shared with that special little boy. It will be a dreadfully sad day, just like all the others have been. Some of us are further along in the healing process than others and some of us are still aching with a hurt unlike any other. I'm in the latter group. Of course I live for Owen and enjoy my days with him, watching him learn, seeing him grow, caring for him as best as I know how...but that Deuce...that Deuce will forever be missing in my life. Forever. Forever. Forever.
During the past year, Austin and I decided once again to move forward with our yard project that had been sitting on the back burner for fifty-one weeks. Tax money in hand, we made a few phone calls, took some measurements, bought some supplies, rented some equipment, and rubbed on the sun screen.
We'll start with Thursday night. The following four pictures were taken the night before our big demolition! Dead grass, dirt, minimal weeds, uneven ground...just a yucky- yucky- yucky-looking part of our home.
View from the driveway looking east
View from the walkway to our front door. (This "practice" tree ring was taken apart before the ground got its makeover Friday.)
Our side yard.
From the street looking toward our house. The last-ever picture of this awful yard.
Here are our supplies.
- 23 bags of lawn soil (7 were returned because our soil was MUCH better than we originally imagined it would be!)
- 10 bags of pea pebbles for the base layer of the tree rings and flowerbed (4 were returned because Yours Truly used them differently than planned which stretched the supply!)
- 45 cement bricks for the barrier between our property and our neighbor's property. (All 45 will be returned because there were root issues GALORE on that side of the yard thanks to a beast of a tree just inside her property line. Did I say the tree is a beast? It. is. a. BEAST!! And.......with a beast of a tree comes a beast of a root system. Burying them as planned was nixed and a new plan involving 2x4s is now in place.)
- 21 red brick-like stones to use for tree rings. Those combined with the 17 we purchased a few weeks ago and an additional 3 purchased today...we had all we needed for our beautiful tree rings (constructed, leveled, and filled by Yours Truly!)
- 10 bags of Arkansas river rocks to use as the main filler in the tree rings and flowerbed.
- Not pictured are the flowerbed border and the 4 bags of cow poop that we ended up returning due to (again) our really great soil! Who knew that under all that stubborn bermuda and sprinkling of dead weeks was a really nice patch of earth?!?!
- Other materials we needed: shovels, rakes, a hoe, an ax (darn tree roots), wheel barrow, a level, trash cans, sprinklers, hoses, gloves, and lots of water to drink!! Oh, and how could I forget the sod cutter??
The next six pictures show our morning's progress. Lunch break!! The mound you see in the first one (mostly under the shade) is dead grass root mixed with dirt. What you don't see is the sidewalk. It's below the mound.
That red machine is the sod cutter! VERY VERY VERY heavy. It was recommended that we use this instead of a tiller because of the bermuda grass root system. The roots (even though they are dead) tend to get tangled in the tiller. The best thing to do was cut the roots and then use the sod cutter as a tiller to break up the next layer of the ground. (That last part was our idea, not part of the recommendation.) All in all, we went over the yard twice with the machine. Once to remove the grass roots and any weeds, and once to aerate the soil. Worked like a charm! We rented it for the day for $85 as well as a ramp to get it on and off my dad's truck. Only Austin and my dad used the loud, hardworking fellow...I had many other important things to do...
What a mess.
More of a mess.
(Please pardon our lack of backyard maintenance. Some of you observant ones are thinking "Man, they need to mow those weeds down!" To that, I have only this to say..."Soon.")
The hill of dirt you see is from the front yard. It is some of the stuff we scraped off the surface. It got sifted in the sifter my dad made that morning...see picture above with sod cutter. The sifter is that rectangular frame-looking thing. By tomorrow evening, it will be raked level and will become Austin's vegetable garden. He's keeping it pretty simple...2 kinds of tomatoes and 3 kinds of peppers. Isn't your mouth watering just thinking about the homemade salsa? :)
Precious Owen getting a ride in the wheel barrow before we got back to work following our yummy Rosa's lunch, provided by Austin's mom!
Dad, Bear, and Billett Mountain.
Austin hard at work going over the last section of yard. Looking good...both my husband and the yard! ;)
One of the three finished tree rings.
The side yard.
The following pictures are from the very end of the workday Saturday. We worked on and off from 10:00am-5:00pm. (I forgot to mention that we worked from 8:00am-8:30pm Friday with 2 short meal breaks.)
LOVING my new shepherd's hooks and hanging plants. (Oh yeah, that is the flowerbed right in front of the house. Kinda wimpy looking, but it's nice. Once the grass is in, it'll be nice against the bright green grass.)
It's called Bolivian Jew. It looks like a hanging topiary and I instantly fell in love with the pair!
Next step...SOD!! It should be in early next week. Can't wait to show those pictures as well.
Sore to the max but proud of our accomplishment,
Carianne
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