Backyard Rehabilitation

Our backyard has been in pretty sad shape since we moved in. The soil is primarily clay and when we do manage to dig through sections, we discover all kinds of fun left to us from the previous owner of this property. (Our house is a new development of several houses on a patch of land that used to be just one home with a giant yard). I'm pretty sure that our yard must have been home to some sort of garage or shop where somebody worked on machines and cars. We've found random screws and nails, rusted out hinges, random scraps of cloth, and even an oil filter buried back there. There's still a tarp that's fairly deep stuck in the ground near the back. Helo's having a grand time attempting to uncover it.

Little by little, we're trying to reclaim the space and make it both usable and healthy again. Grass has been a struggle for us in a few areas of the yard both because of a lack of sunshine and a dig-happy puppy, so we're contemplating some new approaches this year. Our hope is that by late summer we'll be well on our way.

This is what we're starting from:

This is the side of our house. The large hole is courtesy of Helo.

Side of the back. Our currently dormant veggie garden, some Helo landscaping, and lots of branches thanks to recent stormy days. Our herbs are also hanging out back here until it gets warmer and we can move them to the front where there's more sun.

The middle of the back. A little more of Helo's handiwork, and some struggling grass.

The other side of the back. There used to be a Peony in the back corner, but it wasn't super happy and I guess Helo didn't want it to suffer.

Clearly, we have our work cut out for us. The first project we have in mind is building a small storage space under our deck (not pictured) for our gardening supplies, reminiscent of this one. After that, we're considering creating a small patio space in the area that Helo most loves to dig, since it's super difficult to get grass to grow there anyway. Beyond that, we're not entirely sure yet, but ideas are flowing and we'd love to hear yours!

Soil Reclamation

"Soil Reclamation" is what I'm calling the soil rehabilitation process Chrissie and I are undertaking. On the surface, the soil around our house looks fine (it's amazing what someone can cover up with some bark dust and sod). Dig a little deeper and you find that it is totally unsuitable to sustain vegetation.

See the stuff right under the bark dust? It's dirt mixed in with rocks. It's packed in so tightly that you can't break it up with a shovel, you have to use a pick-axe or a similarly pointy thing. We use a triangular hoe. It'll take a long time for a plant to establish any sort of decent root system in this dirt.

I would rather have soil that is black and crumbly, like you stuff you find in a bag of potting soil. That's the sort of stuff plants love to grow in. I would also like to see a layer of it an inch thick. To achieve that here will take years. This was definitely one of the downsides to buying a brand new house.

Before I go on, I should mention that I could grow stuff with soil like this and probably quite successfully. I need only copy the formula that large, commercial farms use: bombard my crops with fertilizer. That's not really my style though. Using, and more importantly, relying on that stuff isn't sustainable. I don't want to be stuck looking for fertilizer when it's all gone and that's why I have soil reclamation.

What Chrissie and I are essentially doing is returning nutrients and organic matter to the soil any way we know how. I've already mentioned sniper potatoes and how they work in a previous post. We've started other things too. Composting is probably the most important action we're taking.

I talked Chrissie into allowing me two full size garbage cans in the back yard to fill with compost. I'm working on convincing her to let me have a third. You don't need to compost in a container, but we decided to do it this way to keep the critters out. The plan is, when the compost is ready, dig a big hole and dump the compost in. Then, slowly and surely, we have a bunch of patches that we can grow food in.

Another little project was planting lupins the back yard. Lupins are native to the Pacific Northwest and they are one of the first plants to grow places that have experienced a massive destruction, like a volcano or forest fire. They are essential to the healing process because they reintroduce nitrogen into the soil, making it possible for new plants to inhabit the soil in the future. I figure if it's good enough for a volcano, it's good enough for my back yard.

These projects don't mark the end of the process for us. They're just what I've heard about so far. Also, soil management isn't a process that ends at a certain point, it's something we'll always have to tend to. But it's a start.