Rebuilding the Yard

Once the carport was taken down and the patio was taken up in back, and the wall was mostly built in front, it was time to begin rebuilding the yard. Although actually everything was going on all at the same time rather than in sequence.

So, what I had to rebuild the yard with was a big pile of sifted dirt (not soil, dirt), a lot of concrete chunks, concrete gravel, concrete sand, pavers, stones, and another big pile of dirt.

I'm told I probably have more than a ton of dirt here. Cool!

Throughout the process, the pavers, gravel, and sand went into building paths around the house, as these materials became available. Larger concrete refuse went into the trench behind the garage and medium sized pieces were set aside for use in building in the front retaining wall.

Eventually the big holes were filled and the yard is level. There is still a small pile of dirt, but I believe that, as the material in the hole settles, it will be just about the right amount of dirt needed to bring the area back to level.

What remained was a still sizeable number of concrete chunks, which it decided to use as a garden border, creating a multi-level group of planting areas.

This border not only gives a cleaner look to the garden, and disposes of the last of the concrete, it also divides the garden into smaller sections that can be worked on in manageable blocks of time.

Finally, all the bare dirt was seeded with grass and clover as a green manure/winter cover crop. The last step for this year will come after things go dormant in the fall. At that time I plan on getting lots of compost to work into all the exposed dirt in preparation for spring.