eight tons

This morning we finished our major yard project for the season.  The lawn on the north side of the house was largely a disaster: a previous owner had cut the sprinkler lines, shored it up with railroad ties and put a dog run in.  We took the railroad ties out two springs ago because they were killing the neighbor's lawn, then regraded it a little.  But the weeds just ran rampant and there was really no grass, due to there being no sprinklers.  Since we don't like all the water that is wasted on lawns, we were not about to install more sprinkler heads and re-sod this 800 s.f. chunk.  Instead, we are inching towards some xeriscaping and this morning's task got us one step closer.

Nearly all weed-blocked

The "OMG what have we gotten ourselves into" moment

A couple of weeks ago, we went back out to Arrow Rock and Stone (where we got the stone for last spring's backyard re-do) and picked out some more crushed stone, deciding on a local variety.  H attacked the weeds and few clumps of grass with Round-up during the interim and then this morning we put weed block fabric down, securing it with yard staples and stone blocks that we'd gotten from Arrow.  At about 8:40 a.m., the truck delivered eight tons of crushed stone and we started in with our shovels and 5-gallon buckets.  (We'd considered a wheelbarrow but thought it might tear up the weed block fabric too much.)

Eight tons? No problem!

Let the spreading of the rock begin

After about a half hour, I made a run to Home Depot for more weed block.  When I got back, our across-the-street neighbor and his two grown sons were there, filling and dumping buckets right alongside H.  Because they are such nice people, they'd just come on over with their shovels and dug right in.  I can't tell you how grateful we were for the help.  It took the five of us just two hours to spread all that rock around.  H and I probably could have done it ourselves but it would have taken the two of us over five hours, and I don't think my back could have taken it.

Many hands make lighter work - so 

thankful for the friendly help

We spread the last of the rock at 11 a.m., said many thank yous to the neighbors (and will probably stop over later this evening with ice cream and popsicles), then hosed down the rock a little to wash away some of the dust.  Our neighbor to the west, who has had to stare at all the weeds for the last couple of summers came out with a couple of PBRs for H and me.  We think he likely would have preferred it if we'd re-sodded, but he has to admit it looks much better than it did.

Rock-n-roll, baby - it's done

The long term plan is to put just a few native/xeric plants out there to break up the expanse of rock, and maybe install a path of pavers to the gate in the fence.  But that's not on the schedule until next spring.  With the herculean feat of having moved eight tons of rock (with wonderful help!), we're feeling like we're pretty much done with chores for a while.  It's summer, it's Utah - it's time to play.