ohhhh Yard Maintenance

You may recall that D broke up the concrete in the side yard because it had heaved into an angle unhelpful to the house.  Unhelpful in that it sluiced all rainwater right into the side of the house where it leaked into our basement.  The natural lay of the land has all the yards on a gradual hillside slope, and we get all the water from the neighbor's yard rushing towards ours, aimed right at our house.

We dug a trench and laid a pipe for drainage.  It has truly helped for all but the heaviest rains.  We usually don't have water on the north side of the basement anymore. 

In Process

Giant pile of spiders.  I mean rocks.

We hauled away two carloads of the bigger chunks, but there remained a sizeable, unsightly rock pile at the corner of the house. 

And so it was, for a few months.  Because we felt we'd done enough for awhile.

 Little did I know, the pile of rocks was eating away at my husband's sanity. I had no idea the sight of it so offended him.  But it seemed to speak to him, saying nasty things.  "Your yard looks awful."  And such.

Frankly, I hadn't heard a thing. 

So on Sunday the pile of concrete fragments and bricks were moved armful by heavy armful out of the yard.

And there were spiders.  There were ugly brown spiders.  And they tried to touch me.  I had the heebie-jeebies in a serious way.  And in disturbing the pile we also displaced scores, if not hundreds of little centipedes and pillbugs and all manner of creatures. 

Basically an entire ecosystem was destroyed for aesthetic purposes. 

Worth it.



and we made the pavers uniform, but clearly the alignment is all wonky...



My back is killing me. 

And so the offense has been removed.  Well, that one brick is still there to cover a hole that looks suspiciously like a snake hole.  The other brick is there to keep him company. 

Yeah, but for now, this spot is nekkid

As you can see, we managed to kill all the grass under the concrete pile.  But it doesn't matter,

the grass seed we laid in the fall has given us supergrass around the pavers.  It'll be back in no time.

I also transplanted coral bells from the side bed (formerly the den of vine orgies), where they were constantly getting trampled by the dog anyway.  They cheer up the spot where we buried Cricket.  Though the thought that I might disturb her remains gave me the heebie-jeebies, so I was careful to dig as far as I could from where I remembered her to be.  The photos I took this morning turned out awkward, so I'll post some improved shots later. 

Speaking of coral bells, I planted a line of coral bells at the side of the house after the drainage pipe was laid last fall. 



 



Last Fall





Today

  

I think they survived the winter pretty well, and they filled out quite nicely.  Admittedly this winter was crazy mild.  Even so, it gives them a leg up.  Now they'll be well established for real winter next year.  




Shazaam

  Most astonishing though, are the coral bells that I put in planters on the rickety deck. 
Remember when they froze solid? 

Crispy Heuchera

This leafy fella is indestructible.  

Soon our flowers for the front garden arrive.  Cannot wait!

*MORE* concrete?!

Trying to do work with a puppy underfoot is both awesome and tedious.  It's awesome because you've got this cute little fella to break up the monotony and he wants to bring you the squeaky ball for you to throw every minute or so. 

 nom

This is what vine orgies look like

It's tedious because you cannot get into any kind of task-oriented groove because a dog is bringing you a squeaky ball for you to throw every minute or so.  In short, its kinda more enjoyable but without the same return on the time investment.  But its time double well spent, if I may. 

So taking advantage of the break in heat, I've been out trying to clean out the patches of dead vines that look like the photo above.  Apparently a previous owner had let these vines do precisely whatever they wanted.  Undisciplined, they refused to get jobs, called over many friends and had a kegger, which degraded into a debauched vine orgy, the remnants of which are still woven into our backyard.  Now its an impressive nest of knots all up on the side of the house (mostly removed now, see previous post), and in this patch at the side of the yard.  Another previous owner had decided to kill all the vines, had to poison them three times to do it, tried to pull them up, and mostly failed.  Apparently he found it annoying, and so he left it there.  For us.  Thanks, buddy. 



1/3 less crappy looking than original pile



There is not only vines in here (Lyme disease awaits as well, I'm sure).  Bizarre detritus has erupted forth as the knot-pile divulges its secrets.  A rope (::cringe::), a broken pair of swimming goggles, a pane of transparent plastic (broken and sharp, naturally), oh, and concrete.  There's a swath of concrete buried underneath the vines.  I don't know what it was yet, still too many vines to get a good look.  And no doubt many more treasures await. 

detritus-gathering

Doggie tried very hard to be helpful, not only by distracting me, but also by standing on the very sticks and vines I was trying to remove by tugging them free.  He sensed my displeasure, I think, and also bit some sticks intermittently.  Coming to my rescue, eh?  Gentleman Jack.  Wait.  I think that refers to something else...

D has been working on fixing shingles on the roof

If we've got to work outside, at least the heat broke.  Through the worst of it, I've kept an eye on all the plantlife at the house.  The plants in the front had me concerned a bit, but now that its a more reasonable temperature outside, I became even more so.  They haven't grown at all.  No new leaves, nothing happening.  I wondered why, but kept watering, all the while internally moping about how $hitty this whole gardening thing has turned out, in spite of my lofty green aspirations. 

Well, I finally got around to weeding the front beds the other day.  The very first weed I tugged on came up along with an entire carpet strata of mulch and such.  Which is weird, right?  I lowered the lot of it, thoughtfully.  Then I lifted again, higher this time so I could peek underneath.  This is what I saw.

What. The. Eff.

Here in front of the house I have uncovered an ugly truth.  There is less than half an inch of mulch plus a ghostly layer of something akin to soil, and then there is a giant, submerged concrete slab, significantly recessed in relation to the concrete porch square.  The layer of substrate is so shallow it isn't even as deep as my first knuckle. 

Now I'm not baffled as to why the hostas haven't gotten any larger.  I'm gobsmacked that they've survived this long.  The former owner, the august Commander Cut-Corners, knocked down a crumbling concrete planter.  (this is what I surmise)  He decided he didn't wanna work anymore, and so he hid the last few feet of concrete underground with a few handfuls of mulch, the soil is so sparse it appears to have been an accidental addition.  He set some (starving) hostas on top, and then he just left it there.  For us.  Thanks again, sir. 

Befores & Afters: the Break-Up Edition

I had this big list of projects that I wanted to complete prior to actually moving into the house.  Well, that list is a lot shorter than it used to be.  Somehow everything is taking twice as long as I expected.  … That's untrue, D’s first project is a wrap.  Behold, the concrete demolition. 

(Before:  Time shifted this concrete sidewalk into a diagonal grade that sent all rainwater splooshing directly into the side of the house.  We think that directly caused the evidence of water intrusion in the basement.  We knew it would have to be broken up before it caused any further damage.)

(Raaaahr.  Behold, as D destroys the offending concrete with his mighty sledgehammer!) 

This is some fine work done by D.  He has a lot to be proud of, including the pain in his back and the blisters on his hands.  This is not the entire pile, this was a shot of the pile halfway through the process.  It's much bigger now.  Now the next step is to either make something useful out of the leftover fragments of concrete, or haul it all away.  I don’t want to pay the dump to take it, I’d rather use the pieces to make a border around some of the trees in the yard or something.  The only caveat to using them as a border is that some fragments are quite sharp.  Any other ideas would be welcome!