Green Goodness

We have a lawn in back again. YAY!

Patching in a lawn with drought tolerant grass

My feeble attempts at getting some kind of lawn in our backyard seem to be continually thwarted each year. Upon moving in, our original backyard had a massive pit full of sand in it from the Previous Owner's sandbox. Since we started working on the house, the backyard has been a massive traffic area and a natural construction staging area full of all kinds of debris and materials for our second floor remodel and kitchen renovation, ruining any attempts we make at reviving it.

Add in the fact that our backyard is small to begin with, has several tall trees and buildings surrounding it, and receives probably only 5 hours of sunlight, it seems like a continually futile battle. So futile in fact, that Jen has repeatedly said she is ready to throw in the towel and just make our backyard grass-free and turn it into a big landscaped area with pea gravel or pavers etc.

Since we still haven't decided what we're going to do with this space (we need a plan!), I am making a last ditch effort this year to once again plant grass seed. Since I want to avoid watering the lawn, I found a hardy variety of grass called tall fescue that is promised to be drought tolerant once it's established and good for cool areas and even shady spaces. After some research, this showed up as one of the "greener" species of lawn grass that would be appropriate. I especially liked this description of tall fescue:

Low maintenance. Tall fescue has excellent tolerance for heat stress and drought. It will tolerate moderate traffic and infrequent mowing. This species is not well adapted to high altitudes.

So I've sowed some seed in one last desperate attempt to salvage a grassy spot in our yard. I figure we'll eventually carve out some kind of plan out of the grass anyway, but it would be nice to have a "green" canvas to begin with. It will be interesting to see how this blends in with the existing (spotty) lawn grass, which I believe is typical Kentucky bluegrass. I'll have to get some photos up of our yard soon to show its progress.

Serenity now, dammit

As all our visitors of late have noticed, the sanctuary of the backyard is totally gone these days, having been stripped of all green by virute of serving as storeyard for the upstairs de/construction. Apparently all that grass dutifully tended by Sara and Jason for the past year only had one good party in it. So we're growing more. We're trying to anyway, if Sam the Bunny will give us a break.

But sweet serenity has returned to the Humphrey House. At least a little. After grustling about it for a year, I finally got a move on this past weekend and cleaned off the front porch. Lovely, isn't it?

Sanctuary

Ah ......

Who knew I was a fan of the serene outdoors? With all the chaos inside the house, I've been turning towards the natural side to feel a sense of accomplishment lately. It's feeling lovely. More pictures are posted below.
SERENITY NOW!

Merlin Explores The Backyard

The Back Blah Yard

Spring is Here!
70 degrees in Chicago today! Woot!

We can't wait to see what things will be sprouting around our new house. We've already noticed some tulip bulbs sprouting right next to the garage, and we think we have two lilac bushes screening us from our neighbors to the north. Can't wait till those bloom.

Unfortunately, we don't have much of a back yard right now. Apparently the PO's had dogs that liked to dig holes. Lots of holes. In fact, our yard could probably shame the suspension systems of several SUVs! In between feeding the Cellulose Blower, Jen took a stab at leveling this into a less dramatic landscape, pruning the bushes and trees, and figuring out what we had to work with.

We're thinking for this year we'll just rototill the yard and throw down some grass seed and hope for the best. As for next year though, we're not quite sure. The yard is almost the same length and slightly wider than the garage.. 24x33. We're toying with the idea of turning this space into a grass-less backyard with a nice patio, trellis, etc. next year, but we're not sure. Here's some more pix.. (the hose is for the blower). If you have any ideas or suggestions, let us know!