When we bought our house, it was far from what I would call a “fixer upper,” not that it didn’t have its opportunities for improvement. The backyard, however, total fixer upper. Our backyard is what some might call a “disaster.” That’s the technical term for it.
Here is a photo from before we moved in, however it doesn’t show the worst areas, including one extremely overgrown flower bed (to the right, off photo). In our defense, we bought the house in March and had no idea how bad it would get when the plants came back from winter.
When the plants in the flower bed did come back, we had a jungle on our hands. My dad ripped out some rotting railroad ties last year, but since then we hadn’t done much of anything.
Here’s how it looked in May 2010.
Yeah, that’s pretty bad. Most of that green is evil honeysuckle taking over the fence, but there was also quite a bit of old ground cover, pokeweed and poison ivy.
Dan started mowing through the low stuff when he mowed the lawn, and I spent a few hours one weekend cutting and unraveling honeysuckle from the fence.
It wasn’t fun, but it was sort of satisfying to remove so much in a short time.
After all that was out, two tree stumps were revealed. Wonderful. My dad has already removed the taller one with a chainsaw, but the second one is still there.
And then I pretty much ignored the backyard for three months. Maybe it’s because I absolutely wilt in the Saint Louis summer humidity. Or the fact that I can go outside for 15 minutes and get 15 mosquito bites. Or because I have an energetic toddler who needs constant attention. Whatever the excuse, the backyard was still embarrassingly neglected.
But this past weekend my dad surprised me by cleaning this area down to the bare dirt. Hooray! I know there is still more to clear once the temperature drops a bit, and the stump and concrete pond have to go, but the bare dirt gives me hope that it could actually be pretty one day!
Now there’s only one minor problem — I don’t know what to do with this large swath of yard. It runs the whole length of our back yard and is about 6-8 feet wide. I need ideas! What would you do with this space?
Do we plant grass? Do we put in a border of plants or bushes? Both? A play area for Elise (sandbox, etc.)? All of the above? Something completely different? I should note that the area is slightly sloped. Also, I’m not opposed to planting edibles, but I don’t know if I have it in me to maintain a proper vegetable garden.
Please leave me your ideas in the comments! I’m also taking ideas for how to keep the space clear until next spring (other than Roundup and vigilance, that is.)
