This past month we had a concrete sidewalk poured, which broke up the previous landscaping, and forced us to deal with the gravel, stones and weeds that made it so fugly. Below, the walkway is in the process of having the surface finished.
The day after the concrete guys left, we decided it was time to buckle down and address the problem. A couple of late 50 year olds with rakes and shovels - and a chainsaw.
The first step was to gather the large stones that segregated the lawn and the gravel/weed mixture. Then I dis-assembled the fire pit (center). This chore required several loads to the back of the property. View is from the back deck. Not nice.
Side view. Lots of thistle growing up through the gravel. The plants at the center are on top of a large pile of dirt and weeds. I had previously cut down two diseased trees from the pile of dirt.
Same thing, viewed from the dirt mound side. A rhubarb plant is in a cage that keeps the deer from eating it down to the ground. A clump of peonies is at the foot of the stairs, and another clump is to the left of the rhubarb. We had planted a few decorative plants on the dirt pile, but decided to start clean.
The wife insisted on buying this little trailer that has a dumping mechanism. I thought she was nuts, but after using it, I'll never push a wheelbarrow around ever again. Below, digging out one of the stumps after removing the plants off the dirt pile. There was also a 2-3" mat of weeds and roots that had to be removed before getting down to clean soil. In this picture the rhubarb has been freed from the cage, but doesn't have much strength, as the cage was supporting it.
The wife sifted through the fire pit soil at the right. It was loaded with glass fragments and trash. Nothing you would want to have in a lawn.
Below, I had to dig down and take the stumps out below grade. It was quite a lot of work. One stump has been taken in this picture. The other stump is right below the trailer wheel in the image.
A load of weeds and dirt in the trailer. All the stumps, plants, and weeds have now been removed from the mound of dirt. Empty energy drink cans to the right.
Removing gravel and hoeing up weeds. I'd estimate we removed 6-8 tons of debris from the area.
Same project, a little further along.
Mostly done with the stripping part of this job. There is still quite a bit of loose gravel, but the soil isn't much better underneath.
I knocked down the dirt pile and spread it out, then bought a few bags of topsoil to provide a friendly environment for grass seed to sprout in.
Next, we cleaned the weeds and plants out of the deck side of the walkway, and put in some deer-resistant plants. They aren't very deer resistant.
The grass is now coming in, and it looks pretty decent so far. The weeds are coming back up along with the grass however. When the grass is hardy enough, I will hit it with a weed and feed product.
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
This is part 3 of a 3 segment post about replacing the back yard landscaping
Part 1 is here. This is where some of the gravel was removed and the concrete was put in.
Part 2 is here. This is where I replaced some of the field stones with fire-pit bricks for borders.
***UPDATE*** 10-4-18
The grass seed has come in reasonably well. I did two seedings - the second one to cover some patches that didn't take the first time around. I'm hopeful that once the new grass gets established a little better that the color will match the rest of the yard.
There is a lot of Canada Thistle growing in a cluster where the fire pit once stood - just above and left of the septic tank lid. I gave the entire area a sprinkling of 2,4-D, so hopefully that will be the end of them. Their leaves are already curling up after just a couple of days. Knock on wood!
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