Over the past 3 years, our yard has gone from out of control to slightly more manageable. You’ve seen us clear out fallen trees from the January ’09 ice storm in our front yard, remove the nasty old metal fence from our side and back yards, and clear off the wood fence that we share with our only neighbor.
The last time we really did any major yard work was this spring, right before Heat Wave 2011 hit in Arkansas. At the beginning of August we’d had over 40 days of 100+ degree temperatures in Northwest Arkansas. Thankfully we got several days of rain about a week ago and temperatures have stayed in the low 90s ever since.
Since 90 degrees feels positively cool these days, Stephen and I got to work continuing to clear 30 years of wild growth from our yard. Our most recent project was tackling the “back alley,” a 10 foot wide piece of land just around this corner of our house that runs the behind our kitchen and dining room. You’ve never seen this bit of yard on the blog before – with good reason!
These photos were taken after we’d already started clearing brush away from the fence. You can see how much of the ground was covered in undergrowth by where the brown stops and the small strip of green grass starts.
We followed essentially the same process as we did when we cleared the back border of our yard, ripping out weeds and vines and trimming the lower limbs from the trees and shrubs.
There were lots of vines and lots of Poison Oak growing along this fence, so while Stephen tackled the major limbs, I (the one slightly less allergic to Poison Ivy and Poison Oak) worked on the weeds and vines.
We filled 3 yard bags with smaller bits, but the rest of what we pulled out will be loaded on our trailer and taken to the yard waste facility later this week.
Just one of the massive piles of vines and limbs we collected from this small strip of yard.
Here’s a good example of the look we are going for. Trees pruned above the top of the fence, clean trunks and no vines.
As of last night, things were looking pretty good. We still have to find a way to rip out that bush you see further down the fence line, but now at least this area has a chance of getting some sun and growing some grass!
My favorite part of the whole project? Stephen worked a little later than I could and surprised me by taking down a nasty old wooden bird feeder that had been hanging on our dining room window since we bought the house.
You can see it on the left dining room window in the photos below: one from the day we bought our house and one from our can light installation project. I wish I would have gotten a close-up shot of that feeder still attached to the house, but I’m glad it’s gone.
That thing was as wide as the window and actually took up most of the room in our big green trash can. Good riddance, I say!!
Now we just need to haul off some limbs, put down some grass seed and cross our fingers!
Do you have trouble spots in your yard too? Anybody else trying to tame a wild yard like ours? Are you super allergic to poison ivy or oak like my mister is? Knock on wood – I’ve managed to steer clear of the stuff so far!
