Spring Yard Work 2010

**ndv21** · 03-25-2010, 09:28 AM

Brothers,

As spring is slowly creeping up on us, I was wondering what you are all doing, or going to do, as far as yard work is concerned. I purchased my new home in late July of last year and with the heavy drought we had in Texas it was really hard for my newly laid Bermuda grass to catch on. I did what i could to save it and looks like it did well but I am looking forward to this spring to have a nice looking carpet lawn. To that end, here is a list of my work so far and some things I have planned for the near future:

- Rains and weather patterns were a little crazy at least in my area so I missed the window for adding some pre-emergent weed treatment.

- I have followed some advice from local yard freaks and completely scalped my lawn in order to prep it for the growing season. This was not before applying some old fashioned elbow grease to remove the crazy amount of winter weeds that were present.

- I planted a couple of trees (shrubs) near my entry door on a small piece of land that has no use for Bermuda grass. I am thinking about removing the little Bermuda grass that I have there and planting some monkey grass since it grows well in the shade.

- In a month or so, after my second mowing, I will be applying Alfalfa Pellets to my lawn as fertilizer based on some recommendations from locals. I am going to try my best to keep my fertilization limited to organic materials only. (I consider cigar ashes organic material as well

)

- At some point, budget allowing, I want to install a sprinkler system

This thread is nothing without pics so please feel free to show off your lawns / gardens. Also, please comment on any advice you would want to share with other members. I am by no means an expert on lawns or lawn care and consider myself a complete newbie to this as well, but I do have the commitment to having a nice and beautiful lawn throughout this year. (I am also jealous of one of my neighbor's lawn

) hehehe.

**ndv21** · 03-25-2010, 09:51 AM

Here is a picture of my recent additions to the yard. Planted them on Sunday. This is also where I want to remove the bermuda grass and plant some monkey grass.

**dr. cox** · 03-25-2010, 09:52 AM

I get to rip out part of a retaining wall for our flower bed to tie in some railroad ties for a vegetable garden that I will be putting together (the veggie garden will be roughly 20' x 15' and stacked railroad ties about a foot or so high.) Then I get to fill all that with dirt and then a layer of our dairy farmer friends best stuff

I also get to reconfigure our sprinkler system by moving our two control boxes (which includes digging all the main lines up

) so that I won't hit them and they won't interfere with the gardens roots. Thankfully one of the guys at the station is a guru with sprinklers so we just have to pay for supplies really

I will also be tearing out most of our old flowers and various shrubs and totally re doing the layout/color scheme of the flowers. Shouldn't be too bad but a little pricey.

And of course the normal mowing and fertilizing for the grass, which isn't bad at all.

This is why I was needing some info on yard gars, lots of smoking....I mean work, to do this year for my dad. He is a total landscaping nut and passed that mindset on to me, teaching me slowly since I was a young boy. This is my first time doing this kind of stuff solo so I am eager to see how it turns out, and to do him proud. I should hopefully be able to start this weekend (if it would stop snowing long enough) and maybe get some pics up for you boys.

**Kenyth** · 03-25-2010, 10:01 AM

Here's the list that has built up since I started going to school. School is ending for me in a few weeks, so it's time to start whittling it down.

Service lawn mower- New plug, new blade, change oil, change filter, clean carburator
Prep areas to plant tomatoes and cukes
Install closet system
Install laundry room shelf
Fix kitchen faucet
Replace sliding door footer (builders didn't use treated lumber, so it's already rotted)
Install truck running boards
Finish basement shelving and clean up junk
refinish kids dresser to match new bed
Build baseball theme side tables for kid's room
Build simple drill press base for my multi purpose workstation
Build table saw workstation
Build dog house
Run basement electric
Frame basement wall with door
Basement subflooring and carpet
Build shed
Landscaping the other half of the front yard

That has to be like a five year list. I'll never get it all done in one, that's for sure. Especially since my wife is generally a little hesitant in giving me the required cash and time to do it.

**ndv21** · 05-04-2010, 04:28 PM

I've been pretty busy lately in the afternoons and weekends with a few buddies working on building a new deck. And here it is:

The specific location:

Materials:

A few pics of the job underway (took us a total of 14 days working on and off):

The end result:

Perfect location for smoking a cigar at night. I guess now I can move from my garage...hehehe. It was an amazing feeling when we finally drove in the last screw and sat down, cracked open a beer and realized the job was done.

I owe my two buddies HUGE for their help on this. BBQ, Beer, and cigars are in order this weekend for them.