Domestic Industry

Since I was feeling better I decided to tackle the flower bed that starts at the front of the house and goes down the side as well as to try to do something with the front yard, which is growing a lot of weeds, but not much real grass. The previous owners had stopped tending the flower bed well before they moved out and I hadn't done anything with it either, so it was full of weeds and grass.

The first thing I decided was that the metal edging had to go and that I was going to replace it with brick edging. I also decided that I was going to go for a minimalist approach (which would also simplify upkeep). Of course, as I'm learning, none of this is cheap and it required multiple trips to Lowe's. So far I've spent nearly $400 on materials (although alot of it is one-time expenses, like a wheelbarrow, brick edging, hoses, sprinklers, etc).

I spent nearly every free moment outside working on it over the weekend, as well as some time last night. A brief summary of my activities:

• Ripped up the metal edging
• Raked out all the wood chips in the flower bed (which were right up against the foundation and seemed to me to provide way too much temptation for termites)
• Trimmed the bottom of the big holly bushes so I could get under them
• Dug up the weeds and grass
• Hauled countless wheelbarrows full of wood chips, dirt, and weeds to the back yard (until I can figure out how to get rid of them)
• Put down weed-stop fabric
• Put down the brick edging
• Ripped up every weed, bush, rose plant, trellis, and other assorted junk along the side of the house (remember, I said minimalist above; in this case I took the "everything must go" approach)
• Spread grass seed and fertilizer
• Put down a 6-inch wide layer of lava rock at the edge of the foundation on top of the weed-stop
• Covered most of the rest of the weed-stop in 'enviromulch' (I have to go back today to get a couple more bags to finish the last little area)
• Setup a timer, hoses, and sprinklers
• Complained about my sore back and took lots of Tylenol in the evenings

I had to setup all that sprinkler apparatus because the grass seed has to be watered twice a day until it gets going (at least two weeks). Of course, my sprinkler setup didn't work as expected. I had four sprinklers on two hoses fed from one timer using a splitter (it's a pretty Rube Goldberg looking setup). It worked when I tested it, but when the timer started, other people in the neighborhood were also using their sprinklers, which caused a couple of mine to not have enough pressure to cycle. I'm going to go back today and get a second timer and hook it up so that the timers are on the splitter and only two of the sprinklers are on each timer. Then I'll stagger the programs so that only one timer (and its two sprinklers) are running at any one time.

I should look into a payroll deduction going directly to Lowe's...

Posted by Aubrey at March 30, 2004 08:34 AM | TrackBack