Category: Prep

Any preperation of the yard for planting, seeding, and growing

Watering

When I came home this evening it was obvious that Mile Hi had returned. They were supposed to come back and do another round of overseeding. Instead, it appears they did another round of everything. I don’t know if they spread seed but I don’t really care at this point. Either they did or they didn’t. Either something grows or it doesn’t. Just in case what they did was helpful, Dana did some watering. I may go out there at some point soon and do a bit of raking and put down my own seed (especially in the really bald spots. I’ve still got some seed left from last year’s seeding. It’s supposed to possibly rain over night tonight. One can only hope.

Aeration, Fertilization and Seeding Oh My

After a disheartening attempt at getting our yard to return from the dead last year, it was time to take another crack at things. We decided to start things off right and get the yard aerated. Throughout the neighborhood there are signs for Mile Hi Aeration. Jury is still out on whether they are a trustworthy bunch. They came today to aerate the lawn and then do fertilization and overseeding. They claim the fertilizer is liquid so we won’t see it but they also claimed that the seeding is mixed with ther fertilizer and I see no sign of seed on my lawn. Dana called them to ask why we find no evidence of seeding and they said they’d call back. That has not yet happened. It is clear the yard was aerated though the plugs are only about 3″–not sure if that’s deep or shallow. Either way it should be better than it was last year in this regard.

Sprucing up

Dana and I decided this weekend we would finally level the soil on the north edge of the yard, put a border around the silver-maple in the front of the house, and cover a number of areas with mulch or stone. In prep for this task, Dana went to Arapahoe Acres and picked up the edging, weed barrier, and mulch. It wouldn’t all fit in her car so I’ll have to go back to get the rest of the mulch.

Dana started on the leveling project and I started on prepping the area below the tree. First I raked all the debris up including old mulch and stones. Just as I was finishing, our new couch was delivered. Dana went into the house to receive it and when she finished setting it up I came to the door to check it out. It looked great but there were two massive moths hanging out of on door that drew some attention.

Dana then helped me get the debris into trash bags. We filled ten bags. Dana and I started working on getting the soil cut for the edging. We were making good progress until we got near an area that had roots all the way out to the sidewalk. After checking with Becky (who has received the formal title, “Master Gardner”) to make sure that it wouldn’t hurt the tree, I got a saw and started cutting the roots back. Dana took that opportunity to finish turning the bed and leveling it and removing tons of rocks from the north end of the yard. I was bending blades and wearing out teeth on the saw not to mention using up battery after battery.

After not making much progress Dana and I switched to working on the rest of the edging. The batteries needed time to recharge anyhow. At some point I took a break and called and checked in at home. Dana went in and took a shower and returned with a fohawk (not to be confused with a mohawk). We continued working but hit a wall with the root trimming. We ordered a pizza delivered directly to the sidewalk and gave it a rest.

Various neighbors came over to give advice and even to lend a tool or a hand or both. After making some progress but not enough, I switched to the Axe-hoe (which Dana had suggested hours earlier). After another number of hours I was finally done chopping through all the roots (some of which were as much as 8″ in diameter). Dana and I get the remaining edging in place and we leveled out the soil in the bed. We did a bit of sweeping and called it a night.

We were both exhausted. We worked nearly 12 hours. I drank more than 160oz (my bottle holds fourty ounces of water and I drank 4 bottle-fills). As soon as we finished I put away the tools in the back and Dana turned to watering. There are lots of photos from today but I’ll have to put those up tomorrow morning as I’m way to tired to cope right now.

Watering

The yard was looking a bit dry. We had our friends and neighbors from across the street (Annie and Becky, mother and daughter expert-gardeners and members of a three-generation household) over giving us some tips on what to do. They explained that part of the reason to cover the new seeds was that seeds like to germinate in the dark. Because my soil-laying operation yesterday wasn’t even in its coverage, Dana brought out more soil and filled in some of the uncovered patches. We then ran the sprinkler until the ground was nice and wet.

Preparing the yard

I managed to get the afternoon off from work. It was warm but only partly cloudy and I decided, after it had rained for the last couple of days that it would be a good time to take the next step in the yard. I came home, changed clothes, and loaded up a wheelbarrow with a metal-forked rake, a plastic rake, a few bags of soil, the hand spreader, the seed, a shovel and a couple of garbage bags. I headed for the front of the house to begin.

My first step was to rake away as much of the debris as I could with the plastic rake. I filled two monster garbage bags. Next I used the medal-forked rake to distress the ground. This actually pulled up even more debris which I cleared away. The gorund started looking darker as apposed to its previous burned out light brown. Next, seeding.