Urban Renewal

While our house has its own unique charm -- the small 1940s bungalow type charm -- it has always admittedly been a little ugly on the outside. We bought the house with the belief that we could improve it on both the inside and out, and thus far we have focused on the inside. But with the fall arriving in Monterey we have seized on the even-more-pleasant-than-usual weather, and really gone to work.

You might remember that our front yard looked like this when we bought it:

Not really very pretty, eh? Instead of grass, someone had decided to fill the whole thing with cheap and unattractive mulch. Uncomfortable for our dog, and not really great for curb appeal either.

Last weekend we got to work. We pulled up all of the mulch (not a small feat) filling about 9 garbage bags. We also finished pulling up the hideous white rock which we had started a few months ago, but we went at it full force this time. We used the rock to fill in a void area between the shed and garage in the back yard, which is was way easier than trying to dispose of 75 lbs of rock. Word for the wise: never use rock, especially white rock, for a decorative feature in your yard. Not only does it look tacky, but it makes it very difficult for anybody that ever wants to change it. So after the removal of everything, we did some turning of the dirt to hopefully oxygenate it a bit.
So this is how it sat for a week. We ordered sod online on Monday, a surprisingly easy process, and scheduled it to arrive on Friday. In the interim we had some of the worst rain Monterey has seen in a decade, which turned the yard into a mud pit. Luckily it dried out prior to starting work, but it did make the sod a bit heavy. Speaking of the sod, it arrived Friday morning, and they put it right down in our driveway, ready to go.
We have a fence that surrounds our front yard. It's kinda silly, but it seems every house here has one. In order to make life a lot easier, and since it really needs replacing anyway, I removed a section of fence along the driveway. Before you couldn't walk directly from the driveway into the front yard. But now, we could just walk with the rolls straight into the yard to unroll them.

And unroll them we did. Saturday was the day we had determined would be the most work, but it was a really rapid process. I started with a rototiller, which took all of 10 minutes in our rather small yard, and then we both attacked it with rakes. Half an hour into the work, and we had the first roll down. By three hours, we had a majority of the yard covered and we could start putting edging down. In keeping with the theme of doing sustainable and environmentally friendly upgrades wherever we can, we used a border that is made of a combination of recycled wood, and recycled plastic bottles. It wasn't the best stuff to work with, but it looks really nice in place, and with the sod it was simple. Put the border in the ground, lay the sod on top, and cut the sod with a sacrificed cheap old steak knife.

Finished off with some new redwood bark, and a couple new plants, and the yard went from a sea (or small lake) of brown, to a rich beautiful yard that is seemingly the envy of the neighbors.

Riley will hopefully enjoy it too. Although not until it gets a bit more established.