The pathway & lawn are done. I may have killed El Granto in the process, but they’re done.
No really, El Granto is a wreck. I think the sheer amount of sunlight, heat & heavy lifting was too much for the poor Englishman. He’s got a bit of heat exhaustion, and is spending the day in the a/c topping up his fluids. I feel like a bit of a jerk, cause my girly muscles couldn’t really help him as much as I would have liked.
Here is what we accomplished, although it doesn’t look like much, it was an absolute ton of work.
Recap from last weekends progress: We took up the path, laid down new rock bedding, and re-laid the pathway, this time with the concrete pavers upside down.
Now, here’s what we did this weekend:
We rented a rototiller, and tilled the whole lawn. Yep, the whole thing, even where we had bits of grass growing. We wanted a fresh clean start, and to get our really packed down lawn a loosening up, and re-grading.
While we were tilling, we ran into a few bumps err rocks. As I started to dig further to get the rocks out, we realized the back half of the lawn was filled with rubble, and then topped with a tiny bit of topsoil. We’re not talking a few stones, we’re talking a bunch of whole bricks, chunks of concrete and other junk. We dug them all out, and bagged them up. They will go out with our trash in our Bagster in the next week or so.
After we tilled and removed the junk, we dug out a trough beside the pathway.
We edged it with plastic edging, and lined it with landscaping fabric.
We then filled the trough with large river rock. This will not only be good for drainage, but it also gives a nice custom look to the otherwise cheapo concrete path. Like putting lipstick on a pig. You know its still a pig, but at least you’ve got something else to look at.
After the rocks were laid, we raked and re-graded the lawn, and seeded it. We used a combination of sun/shade grass seed and white clover, and used an old EZ seed container we had laying around to distribute the seed.
After we seeded, we raked over the lawn, and have been watering perpetually ever since. It isn’t ideal to seed in July, but we will try our hardest to make this grass & clover grow! For the next couple weeks, Odin is blocked from the yard, and we will have to do walks for all his dog needs. Hopefully this will actually give the lawn a shot to get going!
A full reveal is a few weeks away. We’ve gotta turn this dirt patch into a lawn. You can follow along on grass watch 2014 on Instagram. Cause you know, watching grass grow is super interesting. We know how to party round here!
We also got started on our deck pergola. An update will come on that later this week!
Excuse me while I go mow down on copious amounts of ibuprofen.
Your backyard is looking great – I love the idea of putting in the river rock edging – very smart and will look great once the grass comes in!
Looks great! The river rock is a nice touch. I’m sure the grass will come in before you know it!
Oh the rototiller, my muscles are sore just reading about it!!! And we have the rocks and rubble under the surface of our property too, even the kids don’t enjoy being paid to dig it up and cart it away 🙁 Good luck with your lawn!
Our lawn still is more rocky that I’d like, but we gave up on rock picking!
I liertally jumped out of my chair and danced after reading this!
No wonder you’re sore!!
I should really have a masseuse on call!
wow, that would be alot of work. You will be so happy when it all comes in. I love the edging of river rock. we did the same in our backyard walkway.
Thanks Bette! How did your river rock hold up? Any weeds?
Kristen, this looks amazing! LOVE the river rock edging along the path, looks so great 🙂
Thanks Becki! It’s making progress. Man is landscaping a ton of hard work and $! Would love to have incorporated some lighting into the rocks, and some more landscaping around the garage and ivy, but for now, this will do! How is your deck coming along?
Wow, that is A LOT of work, but the pay off will be huge. Poor El Granto! Tell my work hubby to rest up. 🙂 The river rock looks awesome btw..
Take care of him for me this week Tash! He may divorce his real wife for pushing him too hard!
Water the shit out of that grass seed!!! Two years ago we grew grass on approximately 1 acre of land in one of the worst drought years we had, we watered every morning and every night and then seeded more and more. You probably don’t get much wind back there but we had that issue. But the grass grew and we had the best grass on the street! Everybody else had yellow grass!
Also, that river rock looks awesome by the stone!
Oh that’s great news! Everyone was telling me I was ridiculous to seed in the summer (but I am not waiting another year!). You have given me a ton of hope, and I will water, water water!
Looks awesome!!
that is a lot of work, but once it all grows in it’ll all have been worth it! we too have clover mixed in with regular grass and i just love the way it looks!! my green thumbs are crossed for you! XO
How long did it take for your clover to establish? I am worried my poor pup wont get his yard back all summer long.