After 4 years of talking about doing something with our back yard, a combination of guilt from our neighbor’s yard looking so nice and Kristine & Jake building some fantastic planter boxes in their yard has kicked us into gear. We begin today!
We have a somewhat grand vision for the yard; three beds (2 raised ones for herbs, fruit and other produce and a mounded, more decorative bed) as well as a spot for a Italian plum tree to give us delicious fruit and to give Lucy a little extra shade. The biggest challenge we have is our soil, it’s a terrible clay like substance which is bad for growing things…and is near impossible to work with. Our goal for day 1 is to loosen up the dirt in the areas where the beds and tree will go and begin the labor intensive process of sifting the sod and rocks out of the dirt.
My dad and I started to break it up the dirt with a pick but it was a little harder then we wanted, so we’re renting a tiller. Mind you, this is not just any tiller, it’s a 13-hp, 800 lbs beast! (For anyone that knows me, this should be no surprise.) The tiller we rented was designed by a local guy who was frustrated that he kept breaking other tillers…so he built a high powered, uber-tiller that can plow through pretty much anything. *Giggle “uber-tiller” My only fear is that the tiller will make such quick work of our soil that I’ll be inspired to use it to rip up the entire back yard…a project we’ve talked about…but something we’re not quite ready to tackle. Besides, THE Lucy would be very sad to lose her entire back yard for a couple weeks/months.
Our hope is to have the shells of the beds completed by the 3rd of July so that we can have our soil delivered and use the entire three day weekend to move the dirt into it’s new home. Right now I’m estimating that we’ll need 10 – 11 cubic yards of dirt which is A LOT of dirt. For those who don’t know how much dirt that truly is…here’s a picture of 2 cubic yards…and remember, we need about 10…oh momma.
I’m thinking that we’ll be needing to have another brisket-bribery function that weekend to get a few extra hands to help out.
I will keep a running log of our progress with the backyard here on the blog, in addition to our regular family happenings.
Stay tuned…