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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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:
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.
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.
Then we got to work trying to level the dirt, which we did with flat shovels. It looked a little something like this:
After a good four hours of clipping, digging, transplanting, leveling, hauling, and raking, here’s what we were left with:
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?
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.
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.
The Pirate Dad says
Great job guys! The after photos are really impressive.
Elizabeth says
When I saw the first pic I said to myself they’re gonna find a snake and I pray they don’t take a photo. I’m so insanely scared of snakes (even if they are the size of worms) that I would have to pack up and move. Or perform an exorcism.
I’ve been camping for an hour. I left after a snake crawled into my sleeping bag with me so you can understand my fear.
Ann Marie says
“You know, like Transformers, except in bush form.”
I snorted. :-D
Kate says
the front yard makeover… wow…
Anne says
Looks great!
We spent the weekend tiling our kitchen, foyer, bathroom, laundry room area. It is a big job and taking a lot longer than we originally planned. Hopefully we will finish laying the tile tomorrow.
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! So exciting!
xo
s
KarenH. says
It was definitely a yard work kind of weekend. And yours appears to have been as successful as mine! Nice cleared patch there :)
I chopped down three out of control forsythia bushes on Friday. For one, I really hate forsythia–it’s usually only pretty for about two weeks and then it’s just a great place for the neighborhood skunk. Any way, once I chopped them down, I bribed my son to bring his big honking pickup over and three trips to the county dump later the forsythia and two huge branches off my giant lilac trees were gone. Before I seed over the space cleared out, tho, I had to treat for the rampant case of creeping charlie going on back there. Hopefully Mother Nature will hold off on winter long enough for me to seed :)
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that sounds like lots of work Karen! Good luck with everything!
xo
s
Jess says
I think I just have to accept that I do not share your taste when it comes to gardening. I really think the before and after pictures on the front should have been the other way around – I can’t believe that you wanted to remove that lushy greenery and make your whole front yard just open and (to me) quite deserted. Don’t you think it’s a bit annoying that anyone can see your whole front yard and all of the house from the street? I would hate that, I much more prefer the house to be kind of hidden behind some greenery.
And while I understand that the butterfly bushes where not the nicest thing in the world, I still like the green path with the liriope around them and planting beds here and there. Makes it feel more like a garden and less like a football field to me. But then, I guess everyone is different.
A question though – do you have any plans for your garden, except the “we want a wild area in the back”? Do you read any books about gardening to know what kind of feeling and style you want to create?
I would love, love, love some inspirational pictures of gardens that you like.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, personal preference definitely comes into play a ton with gardening! We love the after of our front yard approximately a million times more than the before, but goodness knows there are people out there who prefer the before (perhaps the previous owners do since they planted all of those bushes). The way our house is set back from the street, it’s a ways away, so it’s not easy to see right into the window or anything, and since we do most of our living in the kitchen and living room at night (which is the only time the house is illuminated enough to see into it) no one can see us since those rooms aren’t along the front of the house, so it still feels really cozy. As for exterior stuff we love, you can check out my Pinterest page (I have an exterior board) and we also read mag articles and books on gardening and just take photos/scan/tear out whatever we love to put into a binder for reference (the best one is Square Foot Gardening and The Organic Garden Book). Hope it helps!
xo
s
Jenny says
What a huge difference! Amazing what a little muscle can accomplish! xox
Maosn says
Would you consider renting a little bulldozer to take care of your liriope? (sp?) Or would that be too destructive?
YoungHouseLove says
I think since we’re cheap and we’ve dug it up ourselves before we’ll just have at it with our shovels and hopefully get it out over a couple of Clara naps without doling out money for the dozer…
xo
s
aussiebushgirl says
Does Friday count? ;-) Check out this lurker in my garden!! http://nomoansaboutit.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/snakes-alive.html
Hx
YoungHouseLove says
Woah! Friday totally counts!
xo
s
Anie HUghes says
We were also in the yard this weekend… we cut down three trees and a giant (almost tree) limb. Fun times outside!!!
Jasanna says
Love it!! You guys were super busy! It looks sooo much better. :)
http://www.munchtalk.net/
Shelly Murphy says
The yard looks amazing! I was wondering if y’all are still selling any of your stones? If so, I would love to buy some!
YoungHouseLove says
Sure! If we put an ad up on craigslist we’ll post the link to it in a post for anyone interested!
xo
s
how2home says
Great then and now photos! It still amazes me how you can move that huge tree and plant it elsewhere.
how2home says
Sorry, i meant you transformed the tree so well i totally thought you guys some how “moved” it!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, oh gotcha!
xo
s
Stacy says
I did ZERO house/yard/DIYing of any kind this weekend. I flew to WI w/ the boyfriend to attend a wedding. We got stuck @ O’Hare last night. They finally canceled the flight back home to Richmond, Va after they had delayed it 4 times! Too bad they didn’t cancel it earlier. We could’ve left the airport to see Chicago instead of sitting in there from 2:30 – 10:30.
YoungHouseLove says
Man, that stinks!
xo
s
Marijeaux says
Your yard is looking good! BTW…lirope transplants really well and you can also split them into smaller plants. From the pictures, it looks like you have millions of those things! If you don’t want to keep them you can post on Craigslist a “You dig, you take” kinda thing.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we did that on the side of our yard when we made the patio. We don’t want to do it in the back for fear of someone hitting our irrigation system back there, so we’re going to hopefully dig very carefully ourselves so as not to break anything!
xo
s