The back yard is coming along very nicely. I've been in it at least four hours every weekend for the last month.
When we moved in, the backyard was covered in knee deep ivy. It was 10 feet up in the trees. It obscured every detail of the ground. Before we signed the lease, the landlord agreed to have the ivy vines taken out. It took two men two days to rip it all out. In the picture below, you can see the mound of black garbage bags by the back door. Those are all full of ivy.
This was when we discovered we had a brick patio and sidewalk!
The first day we were in the yard, we worked on getting the rest of the ivy out of the trees. Mark took on the rhodedendron in the back corner. I spent an hour up in the plum tree. Once I got up there, I started knocking out the dead branches. The poor plum tree was once well pruned.
Most of my time in the yard thus far has been spent digging up the ivy roots. Here's an example of invasion we were dealing with.
In this picture you can see the yard after I've done most of the digging. The green container on the sidewalk is our compost bin, the city picks it up weekly. I've filled it at least three times with ivy roots. The good news is that in digging up the roots, we discovered that the dirt is pretty healthy. It's full of worms and little grubs. Once upon a time, the yard was a nice garden. According to neighbors, the backyard has been neglected for at least a decade. In fact, the neighbors have been VERY supportive of our work in the yard. Loaning us tools and sometimes their compost bins, to help us get the work done.
In this picture you can also see a small pile of fig branches under the window. There's a wild crazy fig tree in one of the back corners. We took out about a third of it. We barely notice. Before we're done, we'll probably take out another two or three branches.
You can also see a pile of sticks and lumber behind the stairs to the upstairs flat. Most of it is from the fig tree (stuff to big for the bin). The lumber was rotted and no longer holding up any of the terraces. They have now been replaced.
This is a picture from Sunday afternoon. You can see the pear tree (with curley leaf disease), the overgrown fig tree and the rhodendron bush. Between the fig and the pear tree, there was once a concrete platform, probably for a garden shed. The dirt up there is massively compacted and mostly clay. Behind me (taking this picture) is a small concrete patio (which we also didn't know was there) that I excavated at least 8 boxes of mulch from. I put some of the mulch around the plants, and the rest went up to the clay area.
We finally planted some living things! So far we've got: Sun Cups (CA native), Johnny Forget-me-nots (CA native), alpine strawberries, fairy fan flower, pink geranium, and garlic, onion and potatoes that sprouted in the kitchen.
I'd cleaned up the patio and the sidewalk and put out some mismatched old wood chairs. (Table coming soon!) Two of the plants were gifts from Miles (the fairy fan flower and the geranium), the 5-year old neighbor boy, who befriended me on Saturday and has now become my official garden helper. He's good at moving bricks, watering plants, shoveling, throwing figs, playing with roly pollies, and putting a plant in the ground.
Oh, and most importantly, all of this work was supervised by Site Inspector Orson, almost entirely from his perch on the landing of the stairs to the upstairs flat.
He hasn't made it out in to the yard much yet. The neighbor dog barks most of the time if he ventures from the stairs, he had an encounter with a neighborhood cat who sometimes comes in the yard, and he's not so sure he likes dirt very much. He even shakes off his paws when he goes back in the house. He may not realize he's a cat yet, but at least he's clean!
Labels: garden, precita
