Ta-Da! The sod has arrived!

Ready for sod...

All that clearing this summer, now the ground is almost ready for sod. One pallet this week, and one next week.

The Great Blackberry Eradication Project is almost over.

- Those pots barricading the deck from the planting area are some of the Rescue Roses. Trying to encourage the dogs to take alternate routes so it won't be so hard on the sod once it is in.

Here's a photoshopped simulation of how it will look:

A-a-a-a-nd, here's the real thing, in progress:

Sometimes, neglect is exuberant

The roses are amazing - the 'carpet' rose is 4' tall, profusely flowering; Hot'Buttered Popcorn also flowering like crazy. The white parahebe is an amazing addition, and looks especially nice at night, lit up with a solar spotlight.

BUT.

Sometimes it's not...

And this is what I mean when I say I am starting over. Everything has to be cut back, blackberries are mixed in with the good stuff. The devastation is amazing. We're unearthing lots of what was once good, but it's not as easy and romantic as The Secret Garden makes it seem.

Nonetheless, there's hope. We'll see.

Clearing

It's deceptive. You can see some of the 'clearing in progress' tools in the background.

Priorities

5 years of neglect have taken their toll on the backyard, virtually eliminating any progress I had made. Blackberries send up forty foot canes, our version of kudzu. Mustard takes over, grass invades the flowerbeds. Ivy got out of control and now just flat out has to be eliminated itself.

So I am in a rebuilding phase that is going to take alot of work. Hard work. Every year for the last five years I have taken a stab at it, only to be overwhelmed by the scope and distracted by the political scene that has taken over my life.

Every year I have sworn that this would be the last time I would do this. That I would cement in the area around the pond, lay the fieldstone permanently so that I am not pulling weeds from between the stones where the pretty moss was supposed to be. That I would put in the concrete mowing strip to prevent the grass from encroaching on the planted areas and vice versa.

But I didn't.

This year I will. This year, I will hire a crew to come in and put in the hardscape and the sprinkler system and sod the lawn area.

Then I will work on the planted areas and restore them. And happily plant new things.

Because the good side is that there are now established trees, and rhodies, and lilacs and the like. The plans I had set in motion have borne fruit. The bones and the structure of the garden are there.

And the stage is set to ensure that we will be able, finally, to enjoy the backyard.

The deck, the barbeque, the chairs, the table, the firepit, the playset and the greenhouse turned playhouse...

wish me luck.

UPDATE: Good intentions. Did not come to pass. That was 2008. A few more stabs at it since then, and now it is 2016. I've shed my other obligations entirely. Spent the summer digging out from under the blackberries yet again. Hauled truckloads of green waste to the dump. Got rid of piles of old garden furniture that had rusted.

The good news is, it's cleared, at least an area. Plantings are returning to life. New plants are in. We're clearing the area for sod - long-awaited sod.

And the good news is, there's still the established trees, and rhodies, and lilacs... it can be done.

Progress...

click image to enlarge

View to the greenhouse

The deck in progress. the backyard stripped. The Cat came and did 6 months worth of work in a couple of hours, stripped away blackberries with 40 foot canes, leveled ground, and cleared around the pond with that extended bucket as delicately as you can imagine. Quite a sight to see. Man and machine working as one.

Planning to put in sod. I'd seed it but I don't think that'll work with the kids and the dog. Can't keep 'em off it for that long. There will be sidewalks surrounding the grass and making a barrier between the grass and the planting beds.

IMAGINE how good this is going to look with the grass in.
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So the funny story that goes with this is - the trenches were dug for water lines, the ground was stripped, as you can see in the pic, and the gophers were a little nonplussed. You could see they'd tunneled to the  precipice of the trenches, which had interrupted their normal paths.  And one day, the kids came running in, "Mom! Mom! There's a WILD hamster in the back yard! And sure enough, there was the gopher, poking his cute little head out of a hole in the middle of that barren expanse. Not a problem - the kids laid many scrumptious offerings around his hole. What a nice surprise for him. They did quickly realize he was not, of course, a hamster after all, but it didn't matter.

It is funny that, when you think about it, many people have beloved rats for pets, and they are smart, good companions, but mostly people hate rats and devise ways to kill them. And many people have hamsters as pets, spending small fortunes for elaborate tunnel cages, with wheels and sleeping compartments, and feeding them treats, enjoying their stuffed cheeks and hoarding habits, whilst simultaneously working to eradicate the lowly gopher.  Such are the disconnects.

We like the raccoons that come, they eat the snails, and they're highly entertaining. We feed them to encourage them to stay. But try looking up how to feed raccoons, and most of what you get is how to trap and kill and eliminate them. And it is true of all the urban wildlife. We feed them, and they like it, the momma raccoon even allowed her babies to take the risk and come up on the deck. Yet we are also cognizant of the fact that it is better if they don't trust us too much, or they may think other humans are trustworthy, and the simple act of standing still as if to greet, or check to see if they are safe, will be enough to get them killed by others in the neighborhood who are not happy with their being here.

And to be fair, the neighbors have chickens, but not very sturdy chicken coops, so there is a never-ending war on raccoons.