It Takes Time

I live in a duplex that was built around 1930.  When we first moved in, having moved from Colorado where we lived on 17 acres, my daughter and I went out to the backyard and she said “mama, where is our land” and I said this is our land and she “mama, no where is our land!”  Our yard is about the size of a postage stamp in comparison, but we are very fortunate that we are within walking distance of 3 parks and a preserve that has miles and miles of trails.

We moved in in August of 2007 and my neighbor moved in September 2007 and both of our yards were not much to talk about or to look at.  The summer of 2008 we started re-creating our space to something we would admire and want to sit in and as we found out the neighbors were really wanting things to change too.  We are the first house on the block and it is a one way street – so our yard is the first impression of the street.  Since we are in walking distance to town everyone walks past our yard several times a day.

That first summer I was on www.craigslist.org  and www.freecycle.org almost daily looking for pavers and any gardening materials.  I was successful and was able to get slate for the walkways and garden bed stones.  The only thing that I did purchase were the tiles for the patio that I laid.

It was a lot of digging to get the garden bed stones in, but figuring that I was not stacking wood for the winter anymore – my arms needed some toning – and believe me they got it.  Next came putting in the stepping stones and slate pieces for the paths – that was even harder than the garden bed stones – many I had to redo since when walking the path they weren’t space correctly.  Next came digging up some of the weeds that had turned into bushes – with all the rocks in the soil here that was a challenge, but I got good at pretending my shovel was a pogo stick – also brought back memories of childhood.

We decided that we did not want any grass in either one of our yards or in the front of the house, so we had a grass ripping up party -with 4 of us pulling and digging up the grass. The history of the lawn is pretty interesting, if you want to find out more check this site out:http://www.american-lawns.com/history/history_lawn.html We decided instead to use walkable ground cover.

The soil was not very healthy and as I found out talking to some of the historian neighbors, when they built houses back in the day they used to bury the garbage and debris from the building site.  Amazing what I dug up.  It was off to the nurseries to find organic soil and compost, at that time I did not have any relations with the local farming community and therefore did not have any leads on getting compost from them.  Digging, adding, turning of the soil all came next and many cycles of it.  Now the beds and other area were ready for planting.  Next came the research of what were the native plants here for the landscaping?  I had lived in Westchester 20 years ago, but even then had no idea what was native and what was not.  To the library and internet I went and then I found a local nursery that has a whole section on native plants for the area!

Before the fun part of planting began – I had one more project and that was laying my patio, which I had never done before.  I took some short cuts, mainly because I was tired and my arms and legs were continuously sore and I was doing all of this on the weekends or in the evenings after getting home from a day of working.  I dug the area for the patio, I skipped the step of building the frame and then I laid the stones.  After all the stones were laid, with a couple of trips to the home gardening store for replacement stones – some were cracked or chipped – it was time for the sand.  My daughter and I both had fun doing this part, my daughter, I think it is time for her name…Stella, had more fun playing in the sand and hauling it elsewhere while I did most of the work, but her company and seeing her playing made the task go by faster.

Let the planting begin!  Stella is a child that loves to get dirty, play in the mud and make worm families.  As I would dig, I would say Stella check out this worm and she would come over pick the worm up and put it someplace else – starting a new family, she did that with every worm that I pointed out to her – lost track of how many worm families she started and completed.  She will also pick up worms off the sidewalk and place them in dirt/grass near by to save them so they can start a new family!  Got to love it.

We are in our 4th summer here and for the most part all the landscaping is done, it is mostly just doing the vegetable beds, mulching and adding a few plants here and there to replace ones that did not make it through the winter.  This had been a long project and now if I mention that we need to take a trip to the nursery Stella asked if she can stay home by herself (she is 7) or can she go to a friends – she hates going, finds it boring and if she does have to go – I usually have to bribe her.  Stella does still love helping plant the garden, harvest the produce and thanks to Grandma Jo, loves to dead head the flowers!

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