Where did all that mulch go?

Here are some before and after shots of the backyard with and without the 40 yards of mulch we moved.

Note the difference in shadows on the ground, too. It was a long day. Next up? Shrubs of course!

Did someone say mulch?

Oh what a weekend... It's Spring in the good ol' Midwest and that means it's time for the annual mulch festival. For purposes of this post, festival equals having mulch dumped in your driveway so you can cart it to where it needs to be in the yard. Fun, huh?

With the relatively recent addition of our fence to the yard, we are putting in a lot of new planting beds around it. Of course, planting beds require mulch - lots of it. Perhaps insane amounts of mulch. Does 40 yards sound like too much? Well, it wasn't! Oh, by the way, what you see at right is only 20 yards - half of what we moved.

Between the hours of 7:30am and 4:30pm, we were mulch-moving-maniacs. But it's done and we even beat the rain that came the next day. Ah yes, good times for Broke Homeowners.

The pictures at the right illustrate the driveway in the various stages of the mulch festival: before the mulch was delivered, after the mulch was delivered, and after the mulch was properly distributed.

Planting Beds, hedges, and shrubs - oh my!

Remember the post about the fence? (You ought to, it's right below this one) Remember those hedges and planting beds I mentioned? Well, Spring is in the air and it's time. Oh goody!

So far, we're in for 24 forsythia bushes and about 50 cubic yards of grass/soil removal to make way for the mulch. I'm sure you'll hear more about this one in the coming weeks...

PVC Fence

With a new yard, comes a new fence. This one was a bit more of an ordeal than our last one. First of all, we had a homeowners association to deal with this time around which, by the way, was about 99.9% of the challenge with this project. Seems, even though the covenants are perfectly clear that fences are permitted, certain individuals in the neighborhood are just plain opposed to fences. Funny thing about it is, some those who are opposed have fences of their own!

Anyway, after we spent two years getting through the homeowners association (threatening a lawsuit along the way), we decided to have the fence professionally installed. Not that we couldn't do it, but the installation cost was such an insignificant amount relative to the overall cost, we figured we'd pay somebody else to do the labor this time. This was a big deal for us broke homeowners!

With the fence installed, it's now time to start on our planting beds and hedges. Does the fun ever stop?

Cedar picket fence

When you and your neighbors are packed on quarter-acre lots, you want every square inch.

Trips to Home Improvement Centers: 2

I helped my neighbor build his fence last year so this year it was his turn to help me out. We got the bulk of the work done in one day (with help from a couple other people) and then spent most of the next day finishing things up - hanging gates, cutting posts to height, etc.

Check out how straight that run looks.

You gotta love utility easements. They have 10' at the back of our lot to bury their lines and where do the put them? You guessed it, right down the property line! I had to dig darn near half of the post holes by hand! And, in the good ol' Midwest where the glaciers left their mark, you've got compacted dirt, clay and gravel to deal with. It was quite the adventure.

You can see my gate is much better than the neighbor's.

The overall dimensions of the fence are approximately 70' x 90', comprised of 26-1/2 panels, 27 posts, 30 bags of concrete, and 2 gates. A plethora of tools was required, including: several drills, a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, and the standard hammer and tape measure. Measuring the lot did require the purchase of a studly 200' tape measure. You know, those Sears folks knew a thing or two when they branded good ol' Craftsman tools. We also rented a gas powered auger with an 8" bit to dig the post holes.

Check out the vast expanses of a 1/4 acre lot!