Day 141 - Backyard Overhaul

Removing many dead trees was an important element to the restoration of our big backyard. We would continue to focus on eradicating reed canary grass and monitoring a hopefully successful and productive return of native plants. Now that we scraped and cleared the backyard immediately behind our house, we also wanted to make improvements to that area. 

But what would we include in this backyard overhaul?

Before the scraping, we had patchy grass, a climbing dome for the kids, a few hammocks, a bunch of rocks, and a small vegetable garden.

Now we had lots of mud. During the drier part of the year, we knew the mud would dry and something would probably grow but we were hoping to do more than just have a boring lawn. Maybe we would try a microprairie? Maybe we would add more to our garden. Maybe we would make this the start of the trail. Maybe we would add more adventurous opportunities for the kids. Knowing our history, it was likely we would do a little bit of everything. Whatever we chose, we knew an outdoor fire pit for s’mores and adult beverages was a must.

We knew whatever we did would be an improvement. Before we moved in, the backyard was a cemetery for rusty equipment. After we purchased the property, it became more of a traditional yard. But being an untraditional family, that would change. We just had to figure out how. We had many conversations and drew up many different plans. We talked to others and scoured the Internet for ideas about backyard organization and creative and efficient use of outdoor spaces.

With all of the other projects we had already been focused on, we thought it might be best to leave everything as is and “live with it for a while,” hoping this might make our backyard vision a bit clearer.

It sounded good in theory, but we are a family of action and we have a hard time sitting still.

We decided it might be best to focus on one thing at a time. Having a strong desire to use our land purposefully, expanding our vegetable garden seemed like a logical first step.