Busy Saturday

This last weekend was our first phase of removing the wall-to-wall lawn designation from our backyard. Too bad there is no before picture to precede the after, but just imagine grass all the way to the fence, with the slope of the yard continuing down toward the fence. Oops, including all the way to the trunks of the trees. (View from south to north, then from north to south - the blue spruce is in the south east corner of our backyard.)

I used some cardboard, but mostly sections from the lawn that I cut out to cover grass. Hopefully it doesn't grow through. Because I didn't dig up the trees that were planted by the previous owner, I'm keeping a circle clear around the trunk of each tree, but we will probably continue to build up the height of the border around these "clearance circles" for greater effect. Eventually, we'll plant smaller flowers/ground coverings on the hills of the border - or better yet, maybe more strawberries! (View of "clearance circle" around one of the apple trees.)

We'll also cover it with mulch once we complete excavation...

The last picture is an effort to remove any trace of bindweed root from our backyard. Actually, it is an early stage of the future garden location that will include combination container boxes/cold frames since we planted one of the new apple trees in the middle of the current garden location. After excavation is complete, we will build a retaining wall. It will also be a more efficient use of the north east corner that wasn't being covered by the sprinkler system. As you can see, it is now being used to "store" or mulch sections cut out from the lawn for the five new fruit trees we planted (not pictured).

I'm attempting to "harvest" rock from the excavation for a gravel floor around the future boxes.