Front Yard Transformation in Under a Day: Amazing Before and After Photos
On Sunday, Julie and Bob were at our place to help work on the house. It was an all-plants weekend for Julie, as she shifted from running her annual plant sale just yesterday, to helping us tame the out-of-control front yard.
Note that the majority of the plants in the yard were day lillies (as correctly identified by Allison).
While Bob and I were working on the interior of the house, Julie and Liz really went to town on the front yard. By the end of the day, all four of us were out there, helping to move away excess soil and to cart the remaining yard waste bags out into the street.
According to Liz and Julie, the day lillies came out easier than expected. The soil all around the house is apparently very sandy, and pretty loose.
Liz, hulking out and pulling up this monster all on her own.
Amazingly, they got the yard cleared out pretty dang fast. We had a slower start to the day, as we didn’t really begin until around 12:30 or so (with a lunch break thrown in).
Liz and Julie, replanting some of the peonies Liz wanted to keep.
Bob, helping to rake down the mounds of soil. I ended up carting about 5 wheelbarrows full of soil to the back yard, just so we could even out the front a bit more. We’ll be using the excess soil to level out the back (eventually).
Of the many things we found in the front yard, this one bit of bone was slightly… disconcerting. The fact that it’s cleanly cut on one side is a puzzler. On finding another small bone fragment, Bob shouted out “Here’s another piece of grandma” to everyone.
Additional bulbs that were uncovered.
And the new front yard, free of day lillies and pretty much just dirt. But markedly cleaner than before.
Not 100% yet on what will go here. Sod, perhaps, as it’s the lowest maintenance option. Liz and I are both looking at the front yard as a temporary thing, until the greater work on the house itself is done. Whatever we do in the short term will be just that: short term.
For now though, even just having a bare patch of soil looks preferable to what was there before.
The laborers, enjoying a beer after a lengthy day’s work. It’s still amazing to me how much was done in such a short amount of time. Given the late start, it was more like a half a day.
Related:
Lily of the Valley of the Backyard
Old Bird Bath, New Yard
Napoleon used to find disconcerting bones in the backyard of our rental house all of the time. I made myself feel better by deciding to believe that they were dropped in our backyard by crows or raccoons and we weren’t, in fact, living on top of some sort of crime scene.
Melissa (June 9, 2014 at 2:45 pm)I have three words for you: indian burial ground.
avoision (June 9, 2014 at 2:49 pm)The downstairs was kind of spooky!
Melissa (June 9, 2014 at 8:03 pm)Speaking from personal experience, you may need a nuclear device to be rid of the day lilies. They’re like cockroaches.
Tracy (June 9, 2014 at 9:48 pm)They definitely do grow, and quickly! Our front lawn was getting too out-of-control, and we need to do a similar kind of clearing of the area just past our sidewalk. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the lawn in the meanwhile. as those guys are most definitely resilient.
avoision (June 15, 2014 at 6:12 am)