Talking Sweet About Nothing

Most of you who know me, know that I spent most of last summer clearing out our backyard. Our house had been vacant for three years before we moved in and the backyard was visual proof. The neighbors had kept up the front lawn, but the backyard had been overtaken by English Ivy, rocks, and nearly every variety of weed. It was beyond saving. Our only option was to start from scratch. I tilled the entire backyard and hauled away the top layer.


Ivy had overtaken much of the yard and fence-line. Taming that was an early priority.


We discovered that our soil was not that great. It's thick clay and full of rocks. I was constantly inventing ways to use the ridiculous amount of rocks we were pulling out of the ground.


To amend the soil, we decided we needed to start composting ASAP. Our first compost pile was made with cinder blocks that I uncovered in the backyard.


Meanwhile, I got some used pallets and built a more permanent compost bin.


After tilling and removing the top layer plus all visible rocks, I smoothed the dirt and tamped it to compact the soil and reduce any erosion while it sat dormant. We let it sit for a couple of months in order to let all weeds that had gone to seed re-sprout. By October, the backyard was full of weeds again. Our neighbors thought we were crazy, but we did this on purpose. I tilled again, removed all weeds and their roots, smoothed and tamped. Yes, I basically did the same thing twice, but I wanted to be thorough with killing off as much of the weeds and grass as possible. By November I had finished round two and we were covering the backyard with a deep layer of dead leaves courtesy of all of our neighbors (many of them, unknowingly). We let this sit over the winter to prevent any new growth and to decompose and improve our soil.