It is so refreshing working out in the backyard & getting your hands a bit dirty. As the saying goes, a little dirt never hurt anyone.
This is our first spring in our rental home & it also happens to be our first home with a backyard. Even though we don’t own our home, I wanted to transform our backyard into a beautiful space. Years of neglect from previous tenants had left the yard overgrown & it has quickly become a muddy mess thanks to Lily. Despite the mud, I saw it as a clean slate & a place to dream.
Dirt Never Hurt
Once the weather got warmer, I sat down & sketched out my vision for our backyard. Easter weekend “J” and I got to work. The first job was to remove an old broken compost bin. As I ripped it out, I began to wonder if I had just made a terrible mistake. The compost bin was full of all sorts of garbage, including some “delightful” wet cat litter. How was I going to get rid of all this gross mess? Thankfully my friend & her husband came to the rescue, & a few days later the mess I had undercover disappeared.
The next big task was installing the plastic edging for our mulch bed & gravel walkway. Getting the pre-coiled plastic edging to lay straight is no easy feat. Our struggles continued as we uncovered large tree roots, which we battled with our tiny saw. I am sure our neighbours were very entertained watching us struggle in the dirt for hours. One neighbour even came out to offer us a better saw. The edging might not have been perfect, but in the end, we got it done & it does the trick.
From Paper to Reality
Over the next few weeks, we picked up the mulch, gravel, & stepping stones we needed to turn my sketch into reality. Recently we finished up the mulch bed along with the gravel & step stone walkway that leads to our raised garden bed. Everything is slowly coming together & I am enjoying all the time we have spent working in our backyard. The next project is filling our raised bed with soil & planting our garden. The original plan was to grow carrots, green beans, tomatoes, & strawberries. Now I have added rhubarb, raspberries, & blueberries to the growing list.
Through this whole process, I have learned two things: firstly, fixing up a yard costs a lot more than I thought & secondly, it is indeed true when they say “a little dirt (& some hard work) never hurt anyone.” It is so refreshing to spend an afternoon out in the yard getting your hands dirty as the tulips begin to flower & the birds are singing. There is still a lot of work to be done, but what started as a simple sketch is slowly turning into a reality.
Alec Cibula says
You really make it seem so easy with
your presentation but I find this matter to be
actually something that I think
I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me.
I’m looking forward for your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!