Weekend Yard Work

This past weekend was VERY busy, but I definitely got 2 solid workouts on Saturday and Sunday!

We had originally planned to put sod down in our back yard, but after looking at pricing and availability (it wasn't going to happen until July or August), we decided to try seed it first. It was a lengthy and tiresome process, but hopefully we get a nice, plush yard out of it all!

We had already gone to Lowe's to pick up the seed, fertilizer, spreader and other things we thought we might need on Friday. Lowe's had the blocks we put around our mailbox flower bed on sale, so we picked up a bunch of those for other flower beds. We have enough to go around the flower beds in the front yard and do at least some of the ones we plan to put in the back yard.

Anna and John were already renting an aerator from Home Depot, so we split the cost with them. It saved us both quite a bit of money! We plan to keep doing this every time we need to aerate.We Josh aerated the front and back yards.  While he aerated, I weeded. We have these bush-like prickly weeds that are starting to spread throughout our yard, so I went through and pulled as many of those and dandelions as I could. Once that was finished, we started tilling the back yard. The directions on the the packaging of grass seed said to rake to loosen the top layer of soil. We tried that, but we have HARD clay, so a garden rake didn't loosen anything. We decided to till the yard a little to give the seed a better chance. 

 Josh tilling

The tilling took FOREVER. We were going to see Brad Paisley play Saturday night, so we actually didn't get a chance to finish. We traded off tilling while the other did other things to prep. We did get seed down in the front yard (we didn't till the front, so it didn't take as long to prep).

We had a great time at the concert, but we got to bed really late, so we got a later start than we hoped on Sunday. My body doesn't let me sleep in much, so I got up and put the sprinkler on the front yard and placed an order at Lowe's for some other things we needed. We decided to get more grass seed just in case and we did end up needing some. Now we'll have extra for any bare patches that we need to repair in the future. We also ordered a fire pit kit. We'll put it on our patio eventually, but until we have a patio to put it on, we have it in an area we plan to turn into a flower garden right in front of the vegetable garden. This is the kit we got. It's 20% off right now. Today is the last day of the sale if you want one! I also had a 10% off coupon, so it was even cheaper! I didn't use any adhesive since we plan to move it, but it was really easy to put together!

While I was unloading the fire pit kit and putting it together, Josh was tilling. I was all tilled out after Saturday tilling. Josh was too, but he was a trooper and finished tilling the rest of the back yard. He was almost finished tilling when I finished putting the fire pit together, so I started putting seed out. After I finished seeding, Josh started putting the fertilizer out and I raked over everything with the garden rake. Next, it was time to water...A. LOT. We are definitely not looking forward to our next water bill. We have guestimated that it will probably triple. Hopefully the forecast will change and we'll get more rain! 

 Setting up the sprinkler in the back yard once all the seed and fertilizer was put down

This is us watering the front yard. Since this didn't need to be tilled or anything, it looks a lot better than the back yard right now. Hopefully all the bare spots will fill in and we'll get seed growing in the areas that only have rye grass right now. 

Now, we just have to water water water...and wait. I'll update in a couple weeks...hopefully I'll have good news!