Landscaping Projects Continued


Backyard Path




This project took several weeks to complete but was very rewarding. As you can see, this area was HUGE, which is why it took so long. Grass was already growing there but it was patchy and didn't look very good. Mom started pulling up the grass near the greenhouse and I finished the rest. I took a knife and cut under the layer of grass roots and pulled up all the grass by hand. Afterward came the arduous task of sifting rocks. This area had a lot of gravel and sand and it took over a week just for mom and I to sift it all. Mom laid the stones where she wanted them to make a path, and planted grass seed around it. The new grass is very lush with a cute walkway leading from the berry beds to the woods.
Left: This area is directly across from the the area in the top photos. Mom did the same thing in this section and laid the stones. The grass looks a little patchy in the photo since it was newly sprouted and not completely grown in yet.





Garden



One of the first decisions we made this spring was to downsize the garden. It hadn't been used much in years and was taking up a lot of useless space and collecting weeds. There were originally 4 rectangular plots of land, all with lattice type fencing around. We decided to do away with the front two plots and turn them into lawn and leave the back two plots. Mom removed the lattice and set it aside to use in other projects.

Left: You can see part of the pile of dirt that was left over when the lattice was taken down.

All of this dirt had to be shoveled out and moved. Mom and I took turns shoveling and digging up weeds and willow roots that were deep down in the soil. We worked on this simultaneously as we worked on the new pathway and grass and the new strawberry beds. We transported a lot of the dirt from the garden to the berry beds. The rest was put to use in other beds or parts of the yard.
Above: Here is the garden after the dirt had been removed. As you can see the area is quite large (approx. 25 ft x 6 ft) and spans both photos.



Once the bulk of the dirt was moved, mom went back over and dug out what was left on the surface of the willow roots. Then she smoothed out the soil, adding a border on the end to make it ready for planting seed. The grass was then planted on the first section. The grass has just recently been planted on the second section so there are no photos yet.

Right: First section of new grass


Strawberry & Raspberry Beds




This was one of the more time consuming projects we worked on and took several weeks, since we had to work on three areas at once in order to complete it. This area had been mostly dead grass and weeds hidden by the greenhouse. Since we were downsizing the garden, we had to move the strawberries that were planted there. We needed another place for them and mom decided on this spot.

To the left is the raspberry bed. Mom did this bed by herself, putting up the wood and transplanting the raspberries. I started working on the strawberry bed by digging up the berries from the garden (no small task since there were hundreds of them.) Afterward, we had to cut the wood pieces to fit the bed and secure them together. We placed it in the corner and then came the task of filling the area with sod. I put down several wheelbarrows full of sod clumps as a layer under the dirt to keep the weeds from growing up into the berries. Once that was complete, I shoveled the leftover dirt from the garden and put it into the bed.

Mom finished off the bed by adding the wooden planks in the middle to block the dirt off and make a walkway. Then she planted to berries into the bed.

Top left: Strawberry bed with fence up and sod clumps laid down

Top right: Strawberry & raspberry beds with walkway

Bottom right: Raspberry bed with flats of strawberries scattered around

Bottom left: Completed berry beds




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