the yard

Tomorrow the kids are going over to a friends for a play date. I've already been scheming for two days how I will use every minute to get much needed yard work done. We'll still have the baby around, but if I can teach a 6 month old how to pull weeds, I will. Ideally the yard needs to be gutted. The lawn really should be torn up and reseeded because there is no grass left. It consists of clover, dandelions, creeping charlie and crab grass. I try to stay on top of the mowing so that neighbors won't realize its mostly weeds. I figure that with distance and poor eyesite, it doesn't look too bad.

One back corner of the yard has been particularly evil. Once it held a tri-level flower bed. But from the looks of it, I figure that was about seven years ago. We have been slowly removing brick and digging it flat again. Every single year we pull weeds taller than me and spray on a bunch of weed killer. The weeds are tenacious as they come back mocking us every year. I have grand landscaping plans but it will take years, time and money. None of which is happening fast.

This year the yard is especially out of control. I stay on top of the landscaping that borders the street in hopes that no one will take notice of the back yard (also visible to the street, but less so). I don't think the facade really works. As I was tackling weeds in the back part this evening, I felt badly as I pictured my neighbors, sitting down on their overstuffed chair, sipping a cup of tea in the evening only to be assaulted by the weeds in my yard through their picture window.

So, to get a head start, I spent part of the evening putting the rest of the elm tree branches that were cut down into a trailer. I've been working on removing the parts of that tree for months. I had hoped that all the mess would fit. Initially I thought I was only removing the tree branches from a big pile. Well, it became a archaeological dig of sorts as after the elm was removed, there appeared branches from the pine tree. Once those where off, the large lilac bush we removed last spring turned up. After that, another tree-bush that was growing in the neighbors fence. Finally brush, weeds and rubbish from the fall before that. On top of it all the weeds have managed to grow through the pile, and are now poking out their five foot heads. Ugh! If I lived further outside of town, I'd take a match to it all. That sounds so much easier. I'm all for starting over.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes. There is alot to do, but what do you do with areas that you will landscape somewhere down the road? Put a tarp on them? How do you keep them in limbo for a couple of years and keep the pesky weeds out? Seriously, I'd rather stare at dirt.

Oh, and the tree bush that was removed from my neighbors fence last spring? Well, its come back again. And to its demise...so have I.