...progress on the back yard (2005 - 2006)
may - 2005
this was my first attempt at trying to do anything with our back yard. it was totally overgrown.
seeing as our lawnmower was just the el cheapo model from sears, i decided to just attack it with a mower
i ran over literally hundreds of maple tree saplings intermixed with all the weeds. it was tough going...
may - 2005
about half way through the job.
may - 2005
this is the way our back yard looked for the rest of 2005.
you couldn't walk on it in your bare feet, because at the dead sappling stuck up like a bed of nails.
may - 2005
a view from above.
april - 2006
in the spring of '06, i decided to get a little serious about trying to make something of our back yard.
now that we had a little girl, she would eventually need a place to play in the summer.
so i headed out back to clear things out. once i had everything raked, then i got down on my hands and knees with a hatchet to do away with all of the roots, vines, and small trees that were still hanging around.
after removing the roots, i then took a metal rake, and turned over all the soil.
a few days later i made a trip to home depot, where i bought starter fetilizer and grass seed, which i spread over the area i had cleared.
for the next several weeks i watered the lawn once or twice a day.
late may - 2006
i let things grow quite a while before i made my first pass with the mower.
there were quite a few weeds (but no small maple trees) mixed in with the grass, but things looked good generally before i started to mow.
after mowing i was pretty happy with the look. it still needs a little more work, but generally its functional and ready for my daughter to run around on.
it will probably be another year or two before lily really starts to use the back yard, which is good. i still need more time to improve it some more. additionally, this is only a small part of our land. there is a much larger area to attack just below the small rock wall.
maybe next year i'll post pictures of what i've done there...
late may - 2006
a view from the steps.
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