Gettin’ Stuff Done – Big Yards Mean Big Landscaping
The Grand River Manor has a massive property. Massive properties usually are accompanied by substantial landscaping, which leads to substantial challenges. Little marigolds and poppies wouldn’t be enough to get things in shape here, we needed big stuff. The front of the property was already adorned by shrubbery that has likely been growing here for decades. Last year we started getting it pruned up and back in order after letting it grow wild for a few years. This year, however, we’re making dramatic improvements to the property and landscaping.
The front yard got its shrubs trimmed up and a trailer load of mulch to make things look a little more kept up. The back yard, however, is a completely different story. With half an acre of woods, sloping spots in the yard, a cut-up, fallen tree waiting to be split, and lots of open space, we needed something drastic. Last summer, Greg took it upon himself to get a path built into the forest so it wasn’t dead space, but rather usable acreage. We’ll be expanding that path this year, and making a clearing in the middle of the forest for some shaded, yet open, space.
Last weekend, I rented a roto-tiller to build us some gardens along the border of the forest. Previously, weeds, vines, and other forest plants grew rampant and had slowly been encroaching on the yard; year after year choking out usable space. No more! The tiller made short work of that mess, and gave us a 2′ wide garden to plant things in. Some wooden borders finish off the look. Seeds are planted for 10-15 different varieties of wild flowers that should keep some color all summer long. I’ll post photos once things start growing.
Along the patio, we installed the border garden with the garden trellises. The garden is going to be a dual-purpose flower and vegetable garden. The patio itself is getting a facelift by removing/burning/killing all of the weeds growing in the cracks between the flag stones. We’ve also started piling the split wood up on raised boards to prevent rotting. There’s probably 8-10 face cord of wood waiting to be split, but that’s a project for another time.
The excess dirt from tilling up the gardens has been used to fill in some low spots in the yard. Some of those low spots are natually ocurring features of the yard. Others… well, others were created by the pent up energy of a 1 year old Husky Puppy. What a jerk. But they’re filled in now, and if I can keep her from digging, the grass should come back this year just fine.
