LOLBGS or Lots of Little Baby Grasses

Since early May (when the weather started getting warmer and trying to put off the painting project) Scott has been hard at work in the back yard. There were many efforts - having several trees that were in bad shape removed, convincing our neighbor to the north that the fence at the top of their property (the edge of the drop off at the back of our yard) was in really bad shape and needed to be removed, and removing all the yews (or junipers, I really don't know which) that were so overgrown that they had taken over half the back yard. But that was just the beginning!

Backyard before panorama - trees and fence

Backyard after panorama

Now mind you, the backyard was nice. But being me, I have a very specific idea of what the back yard will look like in a year or two. Scott amazingly has bought into the overarching idea, if not the specifics (yet), and dove head first into the project of clearing and cleaning up the backyard.

Back yard, circa August 2016

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Lots of Little Baby Grasses

circa September 2017

You'll notice that the arborvitae between our yard and the neighbors yard has disappeared. Scott and I spent many evenings trimming back dead and straggly branches (and filling lots and lots of yard waste bags) and Scott had removed several of the trees that were split or dead. We finally had to admit that most of the trees were really beyond help and decided to take them out at the same time as we had the large cherry trimmed up.

Arborvitae screen - gone

Having removed all the junipers (yews, whatever) and now the arborvitae screen, we had what can only be described as a dust bowl. It's been hot this summer and all that dirt in the back yard would just whip up into the air at the slightest breeze and enter the house through any open window. We took advantage of a rare Monday off, the day of the solar eclipse, to enlist Son-Scott and his truck to rent a rototiller. Of course not just any rototiller, but the biggest, toughest, meanest rototiller Home Depot had. The first tries at it had Scott jumping around like he was riding a bull, but he soon got the hang of it and over four hours he had the clay, roots and other debris well under control.

Old man rototilling yard

Scott spread some grass seed around and after throughly watering for three weeks we now have lots of little baby grasses - no more dust bowl! We're a long way from being done in the back yard but we now have what might be called a clean slate for all my ideas. Stay tuned!