Operation Green Yard

I cannot contain my excitement at the moment! I just had to come and share my joy! After 4 years of living with the Sahara desert in my backyard, I finally have GRASS!!! For those who know me and have seen our yard, you know that this is a major coup in the Toy Box Household!

When we bought this house, My Marine and I were amazed at the amount of property we inherited. We both grew up with small backyards, so the vastness of our new yard just made us smile. However, there were a few things wrong with our new yard.

Our Backyard - BEFORE

First, we had no dirt -- we had sand. And there was no grass, at least not grass as we knew it. We had tufts of vegetation sprouting throughout the yard -- crabgrass, prickly jagger bushes, etc. I swear I saw tobacco plants in one corner of the yard. We were also the proud owners of a raspberry bush, and I had visions of picking ripe raspberries and making fruit salads and more. However, the raspberry bush turned rogue, and just stopped producing. I couldn't tell if it was just being stubborn or if I scared it into barreness. So we decided that we would take it out. We thought we dug it up, but the darn thing performed a resurrection of biblical proporations, but it still wouldn't sprout. When my dad came to visit, he tried to kill it by pouring bleach on it -- but that just seemed to make it stronger. That darn thing just wouldn't die no matter what we did. But the raspberry bush met it's match last weekend when we began Phase 1 of Operation Green Yard -- the infamous rototiller. The raspberry bush gave its last gasp and threw up the white flag.

In addition to our runaway vegetation, I discovered that we were hosting a family reunion for a colony of red ants. Those silly red ants started squatting on our property the summer before My Marine returned from Iraq -- so, of course, I had to deal with this dilemma on my own. I went to Lowe's and armed myself with the best ant killers money could buy. Rambo would have been proud. I'll never forget -- it was a sunny September morning when I waged my war with the red ants. I made my first tactical error when I decided that I would dig up the Sheraton Red Ant. As red ants streamed out of the crater that was now in my yard, I realized - as I ran screaming into the house - that I made a huge mistake and began to think that nothing short of starting a brush fire in my backyard was going to make them go away. And boy, were those ants smart. They set up camps throughout the yard. They called in reinforcements. They made an alliance with the hornets from the neighboring yard. I was ready to admit defeat and call in an exterminator, but I was determined to give it one more try.

Dressed in what was nothing short of a Hazmat suit, I ventured out into the backyard once more. I had a bucket filled with hornet killing foam, ant killing spray, and sonar ant traps. Every little hole I saw, I sprayed with foam, ant spray and tossed an ant trap like I was throwing a grenade. When it was all over, my yard looked no worse for wear.....but those creepy crawlies were gone.

Now, almost two years later, Operation Green Yard is just about complete. We weeded, we tilled, we raked and graded top soil and we dug french drains. Today - the sand is gone and the raspberry bush is gone - being replaced with beautiful, sweet smelling grass. I couldn't be happier!

Phases 1 & 2 - Tilling & Grading

The finished product. Isn't it just a slice of heaven?