Tackling the Yard - Spring Installment

Well, my wife and I tackled the yard this past weekend. It took all of Saturday and a good part of Sunday to complete. But it was well worth getting it all done and out of the way.

Much of what we did would be considered basic Spring cleaning prior to the warm season. So to get started, I began to rake out the lawn of any thatch, leftover leaves or other undesirables left over the winter (dog poo and such). My wife began to bring out the flower pots and started in on the cleaning out the gardens. I turned on all of the outside spigots and tested them for and bursting, replaced and reset all of the sprinkler timers, and tested and repaired the entire underground sprinkler system. My wife cleaned off the porch and pitched all of the rampant newspapers, mailing and phonebooks that accumulated. She hung the front pots on the porch. I rolled out the entire lawn... not fun, not easy, but it is a good workout. Did I mention we live on top of a hill? My wife cleaned up the brick pile and storage area in the back. And I joined in on clearing out the gardens. My wife planted a few replacement bushes. To end Saturday we put down weed preventer and a fertilizer into all of the garden beds.

On Sunday my wife continued with getting the beds and pots ready to go while I swapped the tires on the vehicles from Winter to Summer tires. Basic cleanup ensued thereafter.

We did a lot of discussion later about the projects for this upcoming year and beyond. I can discuss that in other installments. But yesterday (Thursday) was a good sign that we chose the right time to do the yard. We decided earlier in the week that we would have Scott's Lawn Service deal with the shortcomings of the lawn that I was obviously not competent enough to instill... so low and behold, the first application came yesterday. Let's hope they get those weeds... and get 'em good!