Day 103 - Fill ‘er Up

Our backyard had always been a bit weedy, rocky, and patchy. It also had plenty of ankle-breaking holes and bumps scattered around. Before we moved in, it had more of a metal scrapyard feel to it. We knew we would eventually want to replace lawn native plants, but when we saw the opportunity to double up projects, we took it. We knew equipment from the grading project would be leveling the earth around the barn to grade it for better water removal and drainage. We figured maybe we could strike while the iron is hot and “fix” the backyard as well.

Because it was filled with random dirt piles, rocks, and weedy plants, we knew we wouldn't be missing out on too much if we just scraped the lawn away and leveled it. Then, we could start over.

Moving through the backyard, you eventually got to the spot where the fill brought in when the house was built ended. There was a bit of a steep decline to the wetland and this “in between” space was littered with large rocks and boring grasses. When we scraped the lawn, we could push dirt back and make a more gradual decline down into the designated wetland area we had already been working on to remove invasive plants. This could be a potential sledding spot in winter and be a nice place to do some prairie restoration. Even though it was dominated by grasses, there were a few more wildflower species that lived in this drier soil. 

With every project, we not only improved the land but we learned about it. We were told that when fill is brought in to build houses, there’s usually three to four inches of nice topsoil added to the top of the fill so that a lush lawn could be planted. That was not the case for us. The gentleman who scraped our land said it was all rocks and “crap” dirt. Knowing the previous owner was a bit tight with his purse strings, this wasn’t much of a surprise. If there wasn't a plan for a lush lawn, the quality of soil added to the backyard wasn't all that important.