Doing Some Yard Work

We've lived here for almost 3 years now. During this time, we've debated about whether to make any changes in our yard. It's really been nice not having to worry about a yard. I've always enjoyed yard work, and found it a great way to relieve stress during my working days. But I have to admit, I've rather enjoyed not having to weed beds, mow the lawn, and do all the other chores associated with lawn care during our 3 years here.

Although we technically own our home, the regulations of our community require that all changes to yard and home be approved by management. The regulations are really common sense concerns, and we are fine with them. So, we visited with our property manager and maintenance director, and all changes we wanted to make were approved.

Our first task we set was to remove the shrubs in our front beds. Neither Donna nor I are fans of shrubs, and these were particularly ugly shrubs. For the 3 years we've lived here, I've trimmed the shrubs 2 or 3 times a year, but have done little else to them.

This is a picture of our house I shot just before we moved in. The shrubs along the garage and around the patio wall to left of sidewalk are the ones we removed.

These are the shrubs bordering our garage. The gate on left goes onto front patio and leads to front door. I snapped this photo just before I removed the shrubs.

These shrubs border the wall around the patio. You can see a bit of our front door above the wall. Photo taken at same time as the one above.

So, I set out with shovel and other tools one warm day and began the process of removing the shrubs. Wow, those boogers really had some roots! And I had to be careful, because we have irrigation hoses in the beds.

This photo shows my progress, as well as the irrigation hose I had to work around. The shrubs in this bed were much easier to remove than the ones in the bed next to the garage.

Basically, I used the shovel to loosen the soil around each shrub, then used hand tools to gradually work the shrubs out. I used a hatchet to cut most of the roots. I ended up spending about 6 hours over 2 days working on the shrubs. It is difficult for me to accept that there are things I cannot do as easily now as I did 40, 30, 20, or even 5 years ago. I was worn after working on these shrubs. The roots just did not want to let go of their hold on the hard caliche soil.

I eventually got all the shrubs out, then Donna began working along behind, cleaning out the beds. There were still quite a few roots in the soil, and we both worked to remove them. There were also 1 or 2 sections of irrigation hose that had been damaged by the roots. Admittedly, I also got a bit wild with the hatchet a time or two and whacked some hose. I replaced damaged sections a day or two later.

This is the completed garage bed. The roots are cleaned out, but there is still a lot of rock in the bed we need to remove. Then we'll mix in some good soil and then stabilize the irrigation hose. Note the black sections of hose; these are the sections I had to replace.

So, we now have the beds pretty clean, but the soil is terrible. We'll gradually work some good soil in, then plant some herbs.

I'll keep you posted as work progresses -- that is, if I live long enough.