Landscape-a-palooza

Bet you didn’t see this one coming.  But let’s back up a little bit.

We asked Ryan’s talented brother (and my wonderful brother-in-law) to help us out with the yard this fall.  Tim’s worked in landscaping for many years and knows his way around all these fancy tools he told us to rent (thank goodness, since we didn’t).

We’d also been discussing our plans with Phrank, who showed up Saturday morning right after Ryan’s run to Home Depot rental department with a special delivery: his tractor, and his elbow grease (for which we are very grateful).

To start, Phrank and Ryan got to working on pulling up the blue stones. The first revelation of the weekend was that our beautiful slate blue stones are actually Very Good fakes in concrete. Who knew.  While the men did that, I worked on transplanting our two clematis vines, and then moved on to the raised planter along the barn.

Things got more interesting as Phrank and Ryan started to take down the pergola. Phrank brought over this very cool lift that pulled the sunken posts (with concrete footing) out of the ground. 

Around this time, more reinforcements showed up.  Tim with his very patient and understanding girlfriend Carol (did I mention this is the first time she’s met us!?) and my parents.

Things really kicked into high gear with seven workers, one confused dog and a tractor about half the size of our lot.  Carol and I removed a slew of yellow fire-rated bricks that had been used as edging and the Phantom Gardener oversaw transplanting.  With their help, I relocated the Plum Island sea grass to along the foundation of our neighbors to the south.  My dad dismantled the raised bed and then helped Phrank remove the gravel walk and pull out a seemingly never-ending assortment of more bricks, random chunks of concrete, a collection of marbles and other “treasures” with the help of the tractor. Tim manned the rototiller and Ryan was the muscle and in all places at once.

Next came raking.  Lots and lots of raking.  We filled about 10 yard bags with sod, leaves, roots and any other loose debris in the yard to get it down to a completely blank slate for seeding.  While we raked, Phrank changed attachments on his tractor to a grader.  After a lunch break and much more raking, Ryan and Tim used the landscaping roller to level the yard and then Tim did a final rake with a wide landscaping rake so that the soil was loose and fluffy and ready for seed the next day.

While the crew enjoyed some hard-earned brews, I supervised my dad as our leggy lilacs got yet another haircut.  We took a fair amount off, but Dad left us the lopper and I’m going to go back in and take off even more. I’d like to get them down to at least as low as the younger bush next to it.  It will take a couple years for to recover, but it needs to happen.

Saturday evening, we had friends over to celebrate MTC’s birthday.  We had other things to celebrate, too.  Namely my BFF (and MOH) Sarah and hubby Chris closing on a house in nearby Hamilton (5.7 miles away!).  We are all totally-totally psyched for them and can’t wait to see what they do with their very own project house.  Sarah is also a talented architect, so we know it will be fab.

The temps dropped quickly that night, but the men of the North Shore had a plan and we put those fire-rated bricks to good use.

The fire pit burned long into the night, kept us warm, and got rid of all the non-pressure treated wood from the pergola.  Double bonus.  It was also cool to notice that when standing behind the pit, there wasn’t any radiant heat seeping through.  Armed with this scientific observation, we’ve begun consider how we might use the bricks to build a permanent pit in the back right corner of the yard up against the fence.  But I digress.

In the wee hours of Sunday morning, we woke to steady rain and our hearts sank a bit.  Then we rolled over.  By the time we got out of bed, there was standing water in the yard and the fluffy soil ready for seed had been turned to the consistency of mud pie.  We still had our usual dump run and tools to return, but we knew seed wasn’t going down.

Instead, we spent the day gathering supplies and made our inaugural trip to the Essex Co-op.  For those in the know, it’s like a North Shore Pick ‘n Shovel.  I could have spent hours there.  It had me quite nostalgic and reminded me of the Feed and Grain my brother worked at one summer that I used to tag along to with my parents.  They have everything. Our purchases included a mum and pot for the front; sun and shade mix grass seeds; fertilizer recommended to us by the very helpful staff; a toy for Tela (who was suffering at the groomer); and two bails of salt marsh hay.  Why salt marsh hay, you ask? To cover the seeds after they’ve been spread so birds don’t get to them.  The salt marsh hay needs a salty environment to grow, so there’s also no risk of us seeding a hayfield instead of a grass field.

While Ryan did schoolwork and watched football, I rearranged our walls to accommodate this beautiful watercolor of the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s by Jean Gregg, my mother’s father’s cousin, who my mom and I visited at her home in Hawaii when I was young.  On that visit, she gave my mom this painting, who has now passed it on to us.  And so, our family art collection grows and we have a nice reminder of our San Francisco honeymoon.

I also finished up the curtains for the front door.  Ta-da!

With warm temperatures predicted all week, we knew we had to get the seed in as soon as possible. We rushed home Monday to spread seed, fertilizer and hay.  We started at 6:00 and it was already dusk (how does fall always sneak up on us so!?).  By the time we laid the hay, it was pitch dark.  I’m fairly confident we achieved a pretty even cover, but the jury is out.  The helpful lady at the co-op told us that in order for seed to germinate, it needs 4 consecutive days of 50 degree-plus weather.

The forecast seems to be cooperating, so it’s just up to us to keep it watered and hopefully the hay will protect it from the birds.  We figure we can always re-seed in the spring to fill in any patches.  Fingers crossed!

Next week, we’re back on the deck.  Here's a couple more shots of our progress so far.

Time to get the trim patched and painted and ready for winter!