Young House Love

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Digging Up A Planting Bed To Plant More Grass

Oh man, we were busy little yard bunnies this Sunday. As in, we probably logged about four hours out there. We started while Clara napped, which ended up being three hours (woot!) and then we each switched off watching Clara while the other finished a few things up. The mission? To have more than a few tiny slivers of grass in our backyard. See how that giant weedy-looking planting bed robs the yard of some great Burger & bean-friendly running-around area? The pictures don’t do it justice, but the planting bed is at least fifteen feet wide and the giant stick-like butterfly bush is around eight or nine feet tall.

Yard Before11

You think I’m kidding, right? So here’s a shot of my 5’2″ self standing in the middle of that giant butterfly bush. Not kneeling. I’m totally standing up.

Yard Before2

Here’s the same planting bed as seen from a different POV (the other side of the yard). Although we love the butterflies that come to visit The Biggest Butterfly Bush in the World (<–not a legally substantiated claim), we thought transplanting it our best bet at reclaiming the yard.

Yard Before3

So the first step was to clip things waaaay back. This doesn’t hurt them (they die all the way back in the fall/winter anyway), but it makes digging it up a lot more manageable because you can actually see the roots without taking a stick to the eye.

Yard Before6

When we got things clipped back we actually learned it wasn’t all one big bush, it was actually a series of smaller bushes that had joined forces to create The Biggest Butterfly Bush in the World. You know, like Transformers, except in bush form. So after we made that discovery, it was pretty simple to dig them out at the roots and transplant them all in the way-back part of our yard (which is a wild & woodsy area that we’d love to make a butterfly haven).

Yard Before5

Then we had to dig out all the little weeds and roots to get the ground flush with the grass around it (so it won’t be all bumpy and raised after we seed it with grass). Oh and while we were digging, lookee what we found:

Yard Before7

It’s a giant tree root, so we think there used to be a giant tree in this insanely giant planting bed, which makes slightly more sense (a big ol’ tree might have matched the enormous bed’s proportions).

Oh and as we were digging things out, John discovered this tiny guy on his shovel (snake warning! If you’re skeeered, don’t scroll!). He was only about as big as a worm, so he wasn’t too intimidating.

Yard Before8

And see all of these border stones that once lined that planting bed’s perimeter? Picture me transporting them all from the backyard to the carport with my own brute strength (and daydreaming about Madonna arms the whole time – but so far, no dice on those). We’ve had some luck selling them for a buck a stone to some sweet neighbors of ours (apparently they’re $3 a pop at garden centers, so they’re happy to grab them for a dollar each), so that’s the plan. Here’s hoping we break even after buying grass seed with our hard-earned border-stone profits. Haha.

Yard Before12

Then we got to work trying to level the dirt, which we did with flat shovels. It looked a little something like this:

Yard Before13

After a good four hours of clipping, digging, transplanting, leveling, hauling, and raking, here’s what we were left with:

Yard Before14

A nice big swatch of space to seed with grass… just as soon as we dig out the other giant butterfly bush on the other side of that liriope-lined path (yes, were that lucky – The Biggest Butterfly Bush in the World apparently comes in pairs). Hence the “Part 1” in the title. Oh well, slowly but surely. Did we mention we also want to dig up all that crazy path-encroaching liriope? I know, that’s a whole lotta digging, but we think it’ll be as dramatic as our front yard makeover if we can actually pull it off. Remember that one?

Front B A

We worked on that on and off throughout the spring, so we’re hoping we can put in some time this fall to overhaul the back yard. It’ll certainly be a while before it’s looking as spiffy as the front, but for now we’re keeping morale up by staring at the then & now shots below and soaking up what a huge difference just removing that one planting bed has made. Woot.

Yard Then Now1

What did you guys do this weekend? Did you get dirty or meet any snakes?

Psst- John’s gearing up for his annual health-a-thon. The name? Aquatober. The game? It’s all explained over on Young House Life.

Comments

  1. Julie R. says

    Enjoy this after your next yard work session, it’s one of my favs, totally delicious!

    Caribbean Bushwacker
    4oz cream of coconut
    2oz coffee liqueur
    1 oz dark rum
    4oz milk

    Cheers to all your hard work!

    Reply

  2. Melissapm says

    Its going to look great, great job! Such a satisfying job! Your yard looks huge!!!! Do you have acreage!?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have almost an acre, but a lot of it is wooded (we actually had more to mow at our first house, so we’re excited to have a little more yard here, but not make tons of mowing work for ourselves, since it’ll just be a few planting beds more of grass).

      xo
      s

  3. Jocelyn Pascall says

    I have to admit, this looks like my least favorite kind of job. I am a total wimp when it comes to creepy-crawlers and snakes, and I know this would have freaked me out – haha. But, it looks great and I am always so impressed with how quickly you two get things done!

    Reply

  4. Kate says

    We spent the weekend in the yard too! but we were hauling dead trees around the yard and using a wood chipper to make mulch. More like, spit wood chunks into my eyes… :)

    Reply

  5. Ruth says

    Once again I learn something from your blog. I love butterfly bushes and have 3-4 in my yard. Never knew they are considered as invasive in GA, where I live. I haven’t seen any volunteers but I learned from the article linked below that due to the methods of seed dispersion, that doesn’t mean my plants aren’t contributing to the problem. I’m not planning on ripping mine out at this point but I’ll be more diligent about deadheading. Thanks for the information, even though you provided it indirectly via your readers’ comments (and, good job on the yard, keep it up).

    http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/2011/04/06/butterfly-bush-beware/

    Reply

  7. Sara C says

    Wow looks great guys! I also did quite a bit of yard cleanup this weekend because my music students did their yearly recital in my backyard yesterday! It was great. Nice and casual. Everyone sang and celloed their little hearts out!

    Reply

  8. Katie says

    Do you ever worry about Clara (when she is a little older) or Burger roaming around outside knowing you have found a couple snakes in your yard? I have an insane fear of them and this is the first thing I thought of. I have 2 dogs and I know I would be terrified to ever let them outside in our yard again, I know…I’m a crazy lady!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thankfully in all of our digging we’ve only seen harmless snakes (not a poisonous one in the bunch). It’s also good to know that animals like snakes generally slither the other direction if they hear a twig breaking- let alone a super loud toddler and pooch running around and screaming/barking! Haha. So here’s hoping the snakes keep to themselves the kids keep having fun outside!

      xo
      s

  9. Wendy says

    This weekend the hub worked on homework (and found a sweet spot at the univ. library for such an endeavor), and I researched PhD programs for him (which I found to be quite comforting as it enabled me to “see” the options out there).

    We also trekked up the canyon to Snowbasin to hike and shoot the leaves.

    Fall in Utah = http://wasatchwendy.blogspot.com/2012/10/fall-splendor-in-utah.html

    Oh, and on the way to hike, I recapped the Mormon rumor and sweet comments by fellow readers here. The hub (who was raised LDS, but defines himself as “RM”- Recovering Mormon) suggested that perhaps you all could be defined as “faux Mormon” based on the perceptions. (

    Really hope this brings a smile.. the hub totally understood the “why” people might have that LDS perception of you and the kindness of your blog community.)

    Reply

  10. Erica says

    What a great change!

    My husband, the 31 year old adolecent, would like me to let you know that the 1980’s cartoon robot that was made from pieces of other robots was Voltron. (Insert eyeroll here)… He seemed to think it was an important distinction.

    Love you guys!

    Reply

  11. Sarah says

    I’m envious that you spent the weekend outside! The open space looks great. I spent the entire weekend inside trying to do a budget makeover on our mudroom. It started out just wanting to take the carpet off the stairs and paint them and it completely snowballed but we’re still keeping it on a budget. We’ve stayed under $200 so far.

    Reply

  13. [email protected] says

    I may have met some critters. We’re house hunting and found a foreclosure we like. We opened up what I thought was a basement but it was a weird entry to the crawl space which was lined with plastic. Once we opened it up I heard a critter scattering away from the opening on the plastic to somewhere beneath the house.

    Reply

  16. Alicia @ The Creative Vault says

    I literally screamed. Out loud. And then when I scrolled back up, forgetting it was there, I screamed again.

    In Alabama we call the lilrope “snake grass” and just mow it a couple times a year and it stays small and manageable. Might be a good fix if you don’t feel like digging it up anytime soon.

    Reply

  19. Sharon says

    What, I seriously moved like 150 rocks from our backyard to the side of our house to remove an old garden to make more grass room in our backyard. We lead parallel lives. I’m going to post them for free on craigs list, but I still have like 150 more rocks to go.

    Reply

  20. Cat says

    Yard work takes FOREVER!!! and looks like nothing got done- not fair!
    Looks fantastic so far guys! I feel like I need a “you are here” map of your yard though- so many liriope lined paths, I’m totally lost ;)

    Reply

  21. Julie says

    Have you looked into low-mow or no-mow grass for that area? I’m curious what your reasons for either getting it or not getting it would be. I’ve been reading up on it and not yet found a downside.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’ve had lots of luck with native grass seed since it seems to stand up to all the drought and the shade that we get here in our wooded lot/area. Sometimes I worry about other types (ex: low-mow, no-mow) being more expensive and a little more precious (if it doesn’t rain for weeks I like not having to worry that our native grass will be just fine). Has anyone tried low-mow/no-mow? We’d love to hear about it!

      xo
      s

  22. Brittney S says

    I just tackled 5 giant butterfly bushes that are right next to our house. I kept turning a blind eye to them until they encroached on our walkway.

    Living in so cal these things never die back so I’ve vowed to keep them trimmed nice a short. lets see how long that lasts haha

    Reply

  23. GreenInOC says

    Yesterday: I spent too long looking at real estate porn for houses with yards.

    This Morning: I saw a picture of a snake in your house with a yard.

    Now: real estate porn advanced search features edited!

    Reply

  24. Susan says

    I hope that snake is not a copperhead. We live about 50 miles west of Richmond, and we have them on our land. Be careful!!

    Reply

  25. Melissa says

    We totally spent the weekend bushwacking too! Our big problem area is a majorly sloping hillside. Trying to dig holes while keeping your balance on an erosion prone slope is all kinds of fun. We conquered/beat-down half the jungle earlier this year, now are trying to plant groundcovers to hold the hill together. We dug 36 holes one day and 25 the other. #pain. I’m not looking forward to doing the other half. I’m trying to do this on the cheap, so had to divide perennials from the rest of my landscaping to fill it in (along with purchasing some evergreen shrub groundcovers). We thought we could get retaining walls to hold up the hill and have a terraced yard, but alas, the bids came in waaaayy tooooo big. I’m going to have to cart a dump truck load of mulch back there to help keep the jungle down while the groundcovers fill in! Next house will have a flatter yard with enough side yard that machines could drive around to work in the back!
    Your yard is looking good, there is definitely something to be said for large, easy grassy areas!

    Reply

  26. Amy says

    I am such a geek for knowing this 1980s cartoon trivia, but I think when you referenced Transformers for the multiple bushes combining to make one large bush, you actually meant Voltron.

    Now to compliment you on how amazing the front yard looks from its original condition, but I can’t place the tree as it currently sits. What did you do differently to the large tree in the front yard?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Haha, thanks Amy! Good call on Voltron! As for the large tree in the front yard, I assume you’re talking about the magnolia? We just limbed that up (got rid of all the branches that blocked the house from the street). It’s nice because we have a lot more light and a better view…

      xo
      s

  27. Wendy says

    Ok, this has nothing to do with your yard (although you are making awesome progress), but I tried the ORB spray paint for the first time this weekend. I completely understand your love of it now, it’s gorgeous! I want to paint my entire house ORB now! haha!

    Reply

  28. Jen@The Decor Scene says

    Oh I remember all that kind of work when we first moved into our home. Shoot we found large boulders in a corner of our property that we needed to move and freecycle {well we kept some for our yard of course}, then it was the taking down a really large pool with decking and then having someone come in and do pavers for us. We are very happy now and we just enjoy regular yard work now. Your yard is going to be gorgeous when you guys are done. I love watching the journey. :)

    Reply

  32. Tania says

    Nice job! I have a suggestion for a post idea that many of your other readers might also find useful. I thought the post about Clara’s (and Sherry’s) clothes was super helpful. As a new mom that shares some of the same goals of being eco-conscious, budget-minded, fostering creativity, I would love to know more about Clara’s toys and books, etc — how you select them, where you buy them, what some of her favorites have been at various stages and most importantly, how to keep them all organized! Even trying to keep a pretty edited selection, I find it very hard to contain it all in a practical and attractive fashion. Living in an apartment, it seems we are drowning in baby clutter no matter how much I try it to manage it!

    Reply

    • Tania says

      Oh, my bad! You did a post on taming toy clutter while I was out on maternity leave and not checking blogs much. I still am curious about how you select her toys/books and what some of the favorites were from previous ages/stages as the post referenced her current favorites. Really love the idea of having a “toy store” and a favorites basket. My cousin’s wife also has a great system with their twin toddlers — she has a different toy basket for each day of the week that she puts out daily — keeps it more under control that having a zillion things out at once and keeps the toys interesting for the kids.

  34. Judy W. says

    Man, I would SO have kept those border stones! They are a treasure! Our house is on a sloping lot and we are constantly in need of stones just like those to help make some terraces here and there. You’ve got some lucky neighbors.

    Reply

  36. Sarah says

    I had a similar daydream about chiseled arms while trimming branches from my pine trees… I have tons more to do, so maybe I’ll be buff by Halloween? Not likely.

    That snake is the cutest thing I’ve seen all day!

    Reply

  37. Maggie says

    Looks better already! We tackled a storage issue in our (rental) kitchen – adding shelves to a sad little pantry closet that only had ONE shelf but brackets for two more. We did those two plus built in two more below that. Still waiting for it to cure up but I’m excited to get stuff off the counters! We recently decided to stay in this place for a few more years so I’m going to make it as functional as possible even if I don’t own it.

    Reply

  39. Lauren says

    I’m house shopping right now and I can’t decide if a garage is a dealbreaker or not. I think I’m cool with a carport, but lots of people mention the perks of a garage including storage and safety. What are your thoughts on having a carport? Do you wish you had a garage? Thanks! :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      If we didn’t have our basement workshop (it’s separate entry, so it’s a lot like a garage but a bit more tucked away) we’d be lost without a garage. But thankfully we just store things down there and work down there and it seems ok.

      xo
      s

  40. Brandi G says

    It’s amazing how such little bit of work makes a huge difference with landscaping, especially clearing out. I really need to email you guys some pictures of our yard’s before and in progress pictures. Not sure how many more years before I get to the after pics. Love y’all’s blog, keep up the great work.

    Reply

  42. Ami says

    Well here in Phoenix, now is the time when our poor yards are recovering from the AWFUL summer heat (and resultant neglect b/c when its 115 you don’t do ANYTHING you don’t have to). So its like spring clean up here. Only in fall. And my husband has been making awesome headway to hacking back the weeds and bushes that went into overdrive once monsoon season kicked in and they actually got rain and not just heat.

    But what I really wanna know is what is that big pile of lumber looking something to the right in the pic of your carport? New project??

    Reply

  43. Megan says

    I love a good before and after photo of yard work! I know it’s hard, we’re working on some ourselves. Good luck with the rest of it. It’ll look great once it’s done. And yes, it’s a lot of digging but look at the rewards… a beautiful yard. I recently transplanted hostas. I took all of the giant clumps I had and made about 30 smaller plants, roughly the size of the small ones you can buy at yard centers for like $5 each. Here’s the proof of my hard work… http://thebrickbungalow.blogspot.com/2012/09/outside-hostas.html I always like comparing the photos in a year or two since plants need time to grow back. Or grass seed too. :)

    Reply

  44. Marcy says

    I sealed a crack in our basement floor and sealed a new deck to prepare it for painting while my husband demo-ed a bathroom and a wall and prepped our entire basement for paint. We both got very dirty but not actual dirt. I was quite blue (tinted sealant) and he was covered in dust. Thank goodness for safety glasses, respirators, and gloves!

    Hopefully next summer we’ll be ready to tackle some landscaping!

    Reply

  45. Pam the Goatherd says

    This weekend my hubby cut down a mulberry tree/bush that had completely overgrown one of our big living room windows! I was working out in the garden, cleaning it up to put it to bed for the winter, so I didn’t know what he was Rrrrrr-RRRRrrrrr-RRRrrrr-ing with the chainsaw all afternoon. Then he went of to the monthly firefighters meeting and I went in the house to start dinner and couldn’t figure out for a minute why it was so bright in the living room without any lights being turned on. Then it struck me – my dear, sweet man had completely cleaned out that crazy mulberry! Hooray for sunlight streaming through the window once again!

    Reply

  46. Chrissie says

    We were in the garden over the weekend, digging holes to put old fencing panels in in front of the new fences, because they don’t go all the way to the ground, and apparently our youngest dog is a descendent of Houdini.
    She likes to pick the days with the worst weather to make her move, so I’m looking forward to no longer having to run around in the rain looking for her!
    On the down side, the yard at current is… not so pretty. To put it mildly. We’re hoping to get it all tidied up this spring.

    Reply

  47. Sheridan says

    In Australia we have heaps of poisonous snakes, and we have legless lizards, which look just like snakes until you look real close and see the tiny little stubs that used to be legs. Can give you a bit of a scare sometimes when gardening. Even a little brown snake can hurt you. So when your shovel comes up with a brown snake/lizard you put it down gently and run away lol. Or if you’re brave you tip your soil and snake/lizard into a tall bucket and work out which you have. So far I’ve only got lizards, but my neighbour got a brown snake. Shudder.

    Reply

  48. Laura says

    We started renovating our new house!! Last week we pulled out carpet and tile so this weekend we could paint and lay tile! Biggest lesson learned, ugly exterior siding in a family room is probably Hiding something…in our case so gnarly 80’s wallpaper…good times!! Still a lot to do but glad to have the first done!!

    Reply

  49. Crystal says

    I don’t know if I am crazy or something but the picture of John holding the dirt covered root looks like a dead cat carcass. I was like OH MY!!!! HE IS TOUCHING IT!! And then read the caption and instantly felt better. Weird. Scary. Halloweeny.

    Reply

  50. Kim says

    2 weekends ago, pruned 6 way overgrown rose bushes and cut down a huge dead shrub. I love breaking out the pruning shears! Very therapeutic! Wish we has some woods on our property where we could throw the clippings away instead of bagging and/or bundling them up. Thorny branches don’t go in a plastic trash bag so easily!

    Also, I now have a terrible rash on my arms! Must have been poision ivy or the like mixed in there somewhere. Ugh! Itchy, weeping blisters. Totally grossing the hubs and kids out! Good luck with your back yard!

    Reply

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