pausanias_of_ithaca
In Fall 2022, my wife and I bought our first home. A big part of why I haven’t been around so much lately is that we have had tons of projects inside the house and around the yard. One project just happened to line up perfectly with the challenge!
Alongside our driveway, there is a bed with ornamental plantings that were very overgrown and needed to be thinned or removed and replaced. Over the past few weeks, I’ve put a ton of work into it. It’s now greatly improved, and should be much lower-maintenance from here on out. I transplanted in the day lily, hydrangea, and hostas which were split from overgrown plantings elsewhere in the yard, and which took the place of plants I removed last year. The ornamental grass was so overgrown that it was swallowing up the fire hydrant for our street. So, I decided to dig all of it out, remove a couple inches of soil that had mounded up, replant it in containers so it could no longer spread and would be much easier to maintain, and mulch with a cubic yard of pea gravel. Next season I’ll consider replacing a couple clusters of grass with some hardy and pollinator-friendly flowering plants for some color.
The most challenging aspect is described in more detail on my Discord channel; basically the physical effort of dealing with the excess soil and the logistical complexity of finding good places to put it had me moving lots of materials all over the yard. I’ve really been getting my exercise in! I am excited to see the grasses fill in through the summer, and they should provide some nice shelter for beneficial insects in the winter and early spring.
