Ever since we moved in (three years now), the back yard has been the zenith of urban blight: garbage, weeds, rough ground, inhospitable. But what with the foundation on the house falling down, yard beautification was a low priority. Well not any more! In a stunning feat of rapid decision-making, we decided to plant a new lawn.
First off, I cleared out all the junk. Piles of decomposing yard debris were consolidated into two pretty, hand-made composting bins (top right corner of first picture), the remnant concrete from various homeowner projects was dug up and hauled away, Lily's sand box was removed, and the place was generally straightened.
Next, I rented a BIG rototiller and chopped up the whole yard. The ground was incredibly compacted and full of hills and valleys. I raked it all around to smooth it out, filling in the low areas. At this point, portions of the now-gone 100 year old cherry tree were obviously sticking up out of the ground so I borrowed a neighbor's chainsaw and together with my pickaxe, was able to remove enough woody stumpage to make a smooth area.
Then I used a rolling compactor (which I rented from Hobbs & Hopkins) to compact the soil to some exacting standard. I've read that a properly-compacted soil will leave 1/4 inch depressions when you walk on it and this compactor seemed to do the job perfectly.
Finally, I hand-broadcasted the seed mix, about a pound of it, all over the dirt. The mix was Fragrant Herbal by the local company Hobbs & Hopkins. They do mail-order as well. It was chamomile, yarrow, alyssum, strawberry (tall) and pipolina (short) clover, along with two kinds of dwarf grasses. You don't have to mow it, but we will, once the plants start to make flower heads, so the bees don't take over the entire yard. It's also self-fertlizing and specially formulated to the hot, dry Pacific Northwest summers, so it doesn't need watering to stay green. Sounds like a miracle lawn, right?
With any luck, we'll have a lawn in a couple weeks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment