Reclaiming The Back Of The Backyard

Those are nowhere's near the correct temperatures, by the way. More like the high 70s or low 80s.

 

I know you said you could not afford a truck load of mulch, but for all the bags I've seen, you gotta be close to paying for at least a small load. That's a lot of work to open all those things up and spread 2 ft³ at a time.

 

Mulch isn't what I need, and most of the bags were only $2 a bag. I also hauled six trash bins full of compost from the city compost pile, which was free. It's mostly composted stuff from my own compost pile, supplemented by compost from the town compost pile, topsoil at $2 a bag, maybe a half dozen bags of manure compost, and one bag of peat moss.

 

I finished another section. There's only one more section to go, then I'll be done with that for this year. All free stuff this time, except for one bag of peat moss, but I used some of that in other places, as well. When it comes to sifting the rocks and the uncomposted wood out of the free town compost, then hauling it from the town compost site, $2 per bag topsoil looks attractive, however.

 

I finished with the tree erosion too.

 

The problem most folks have with the free stuff from municipal sources in this part of the country is it's chock-full of poison ivy.

 

Yes, that's the reason for the tiered stuff that I did with logs and old lumber, so that it doesn't all get washed down.

 

I planted blue lupines around the tree, covering it with a little more soil and peat.


This probably looks pretty much the same as the last one I posted, but I added some more manure and peat moss to it, filling in some of the holes, and covering most of the trash that was still showing.


This is the section that is still left to be done. I keep telling myself that I will leave this for next year but I'll probably do it this year.

 

Besides the section on the right side, I've decided to add another narrow section in front. Otherwise, water is going to pool there. It's raining today, and will be too wet to dig compost from the town compost pile tomorrow, but I'll get to it.

 

Okay, I did the fifth section. All that remains is that front section, and some other stuff on the side that I may or may not to this year.

 

Unless it's raining tomorrow or it's too wet at the town compost pile, I think I'll finish the front section of my backyard. I am already considering and starting to frame in a few other small areas, though. I'm going to add a couple of sections on either side of my old compost pile, to satisfy my sense of symmetry. But those will be small. I have also found that my new root-cutting spade will cut through my oldest compost pile, which has just been sitting there as a hump. in the yard, so I'll use that for a portion of it. Since I still have lupine seeds left over, I will seed these with lupines but I am afraid that the north side of my yard might be too shaded for lupines. Oh, the plants will grow but I don't know if they'll grow large or flower. If not, I will think of something else to plant there, maybe the spring after next, because I won't know whether the lupines are going to do well or not at least until next year, since it's too late in the year for me to get flowers from seeds this year.

 

Okay, I finished that front section. Of course, I added a new one that I am not putting a timetable on, but I'll probably do it this summer. To reduce the amount of compost and soil I was going to have to haul, I used a miniature version of the hugluculture mound that @Marie Mallery mentioned in another thread. I cut a trail between the brush pile to the left of my yard and the planting area that I put in, and placed some of the old branches that I cut, plus some others from the pile, on the bottom of the section that I was going to fill in, then covered them with soil, compost, and peat. I didn't create a mound, but it should have the same effect.


I added a couple of wings here, to help support the tree roots on the left, while covering some exposed cement that was probably put in for erosion control before I bought the place. I'll probably add a little more soil to this section whenever I have some leftover from another project, particularly along that log in the center and to the right.


To the right is the oldest compost pile, which is only a few feet from the tree roots that I covered a while back. My new spade will cut through some of the roots in that pile, so I will be tearing it apart some, but just enough to pull some of the plastic and trash out of it and to leave room for some soil. As it is, what is left of it is just matted roots, with very little soil. Once I finish cleaning that up some, I'll fill in the gap between the tree roots that I filled in on the left and this old compost pile.