About a month ago, the backyard was looking like this:
The chairs were an improvement. And the trees and weeds are green, so it doesn't look like a dirt farm in the backyard. But the reality is the area behind the fire pit was uneven, had holes where our dogs had dug, and was not as kid friendly as we would have liked. But we had a new fence and it was an improvement from where we were this time last year.
The Builder and I went back and forth on if we were going to re-seed the backyard or lay down sod. Cost wise, re-seeding was more cost effective. There is already a sprinkler system in the backyard and aside from one or two sprinklers that needed to be capped or replaced, it's actually well layed out. Time wise, we knew we were cutting it close for the arrival day of our family at the end of the month. Would be the grass be grown in enough for our nieces and nephews to be able to play outside? And what about the dogs? Would they continue to dig holes in the newly seeded dirt? What if it rained really hard (more of an issue than dogs actually)? And so last weekend we decided to go ahead and do the sod.
This is a whole palette of grass (can you tell that his truck is completely weighed down?!). It doesn't look like much in this photo, but his truck was filled to capacity! We also bought a total of 12 bags of manure. Super fun.
Can I tell you how much work it is to unload a truck and then cart it all into the backyard by wheelbarrow? Yeah, it's seriously hard work! Shout out to my three teenage boys because they were a huge help in this project.
If you follow me on Facebook, I posted a video of The Builder using the tiller we rented from Home Depot to till the ground and level it out. And here's the point that sold us on the sod. Whether we did seed or sod, the ground had to be tilled and leveled out. And that machine is "a beast" in the words of The Builder. To do all that work and then have the dogs get out and tear up the fresh ground or rain come and wash it all away seemed like a huge waste of time and money.
Even with the tiller, it was a lot of work. Apparently, there are a lot of roots in our backyard. Roots that even the tiller couldn't get through. So my boys had to tear them out or use the sawzall to cut them out. Not a fun job.
And after tilling up the ground we had to rake it smooth and then put down the manure and then rake it again. Seriously, sod is hard work.
Yep, they were all out and taking turns.
And at the end of the day on Sunday, we had this! We took the extra step of adding turf builder to it to help it root down. Now a week later, the grass is greening up nicely and we can see fresh shoots.
See that area to the left of the photo? That is where the brick path is going. Becuase that is where all the water in the yard drains and is a quagmire of mud any time we need to go out and feed the dogs are let them out of the dog run. So that's the next project on the backyard list (and the last at this point!).
More to come
The Builder and I went back and forth on if we were going to re-seed the backyard or lay down sod. Cost wise, re-seeding was more cost effective. There is already a sprinkler system in the backyard and aside from one or two sprinklers that needed to be capped or replaced, it's actually well layed out. Time wise, we knew we were cutting it close for the arrival day of our family at the end of the month. Would be the grass be grown in enough for our nieces and nephews to be able to play outside? And what about the dogs? Would they continue to dig holes in the newly seeded dirt? What if it rained really hard (more of an issue than dogs actually)? And so last weekend we decided to go ahead and do the sod.
Can I tell you how much work it is to unload a truck and then cart it all into the backyard by wheelbarrow? Yeah, it's seriously hard work! Shout out to my three teenage boys because they were a huge help in this project.
If you follow me on Facebook, I posted a video of The Builder using the tiller we rented from Home Depot to till the ground and level it out. And here's the point that sold us on the sod. Whether we did seed or sod, the ground had to be tilled and leveled out. And that machine is "a beast" in the words of The Builder. To do all that work and then have the dogs get out and tear up the fresh ground or rain come and wash it all away seemed like a huge waste of time and money.
And after tilling up the ground we had to rake it smooth and then put down the manure and then rake it again. Seriously, sod is hard work.
See that area to the left of the photo? That is where the brick path is going. Becuase that is where all the water in the yard drains and is a quagmire of mud any time we need to go out and feed the dogs are let them out of the dog run. So that's the next project on the backyard list (and the last at this point!).
More to come
