|
Okay, we moved into this townhouse in Sept. of last year. It has a little back yard which seemed to have nothing but weeds in it, but this spring I decided I was going to make something of it.
The soil was not too bad, but it had a lot of rocks mixed in, not to mention nails, glass and other junk from the construction of the house, so I decided I would run the whole top 4-5 inches or so through a sieve to get all the junk out of the topsoil. I threw away the trash, and made a little rock garden with the rocks. It took me TWO MONTHS. I never imagined what a chore it would be! But now the weeds are all gone, the soil is beautiful, and I am ready to finish up the landscaping. During the excavation, I found several flower bulbs from a previous tenant, including a very nice calla lily that just finished blooming, so I rearranged them, planted my son's tree fern in one corner, and instead of grass, I'm doing groundcover - one side with English Ivy, and the other side with iceplant. There is going to be a little series of stepping-stones over to the tree fern, and a "deck" that will be made of square granite stones that will have moss in the gaps between the stones. It's finally approaching completion and I couldn't be more pleased, but if I had had any idea of how long it takes to SIFT even a small yard, I think I might not have done it! But once I had started, I couldn't just stop halfway through.
As soon as it's done, I'm going to put some pix on Photobucket and see what you think!
|