Wet, chilly weather created challenging conditions for yard work and delayed the start of this year’s gardening and landscaping season.
Some years you can begin working outdoors in earnest as soon as early March. This year, colder temperatures and rainy weekends kept me indoors until early April.
Readers may recall last June I moved into a different home
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. The previous owner updated the interior but neglected the outdoors for many years. The front, back and side yards were overgrown with weeds and the back was strewed with junk.The place looked like a jungle. I couldn’t step out the back door onto the patio due to buckthorn that had grown up through big cracks in the concrete and along the foundation.
An above ground pool had been removed but a lot of debris remained, including lumber from a deck and heavy liners and pool covers. At least half the backyard was a thicket of buckthorn bushes. A rotting shed stood in one corner of the yard, barely.
Last year I removed all the buckthorn and installed a gravel path around the perimeter of the backyard. I built and cleaned flower beds in front and began to tackle the proliferation of aggressive weeds and vines.
Winter seemed to come early. By early November it was too cold and wet to make meaningful progress moving dirt. Some years it’s nice enough to work outdoors into December. This felt like a long winter. We only got about half the normal snowfall but it was cloudy often and seemed to rain a lot.
Where I live in Will County we got a lot of rain in a short amount of time on March 31. My backyard flooded and I discovered most of the water flowed in from the alley. My property is at a low point in the block but fortunately there are drains in the alley. I dug a ditch along the alley and built a small berm to keep stormwater from getting into my yard.
A stretch of dry days with temperatures in the 80s in early April fooled us into thinking better weather had arrived for good. Weather has cooperated enough lately to plant vegetables and put up wire fencing. I created a plot about 20 by 30 feet for tomatoes, green beans and other produce.
The centerpiece of the backyard garden will be a recreational swim pond or plunge pool, about 20 by 30 feet. I’ve excavated some dirt and researched pond construction. The two important principles are aeration and filtration. I’ll get a liner to hold in water and install plumbing to pump water to a waterfall.
Plants and filters will keep the water clean. The concept is to create a swimming pool that doesn’t need chemicals. I plan to make the pond deep enough to take a refreshing dip on hot days. I haven’t worked at all on the pond yet this year because planting the garden and digging the alley ditch were priorities.
The existing lawn is more weeds than grass. I’m planning to use dirt from the pond excavation to build a new lawn. But first, virtually every square foot of the existing patch of weed-filled soil needs to be turned over. I generally avoid using weed killers and do most work by hand.
The lawn needs a treatment similar to a gut rehab of an old home. I need to remove weeds from the top several inches of soil and smooth the dirt before planting grass seed. The overall percentage of lawn will be relatively small compared to the amount of space devoted to the pond, garden and flower beds.
My approach to landscaping is to keep sight of the big picture. I look at projects as a whole. As much as possible I repurpose materials on hand. My budget may be small but I have time and enjoy the physical labor.
Mending a privacy fence is another priority I must complete before building the pond. One section was missing and I built a new one from scratch with materials bought from a home improvement center. A large tree fell on another section that still needs to be repaired.
A neighbor’s pickup truck caused a rapid unscheduled disassembly of another section, and that required replacing two posts. That entailed a lot of work removing the old concrete that held the broken posts in place and installing new posts. Removing the concrete and digging through compacted stone to create the alley ditch were hard on the back and I needed rest for days to recover.
Progress has felt slow but steady. When I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done I tell myself it’s sometimes better to look at one stair at a time rather than the entire staircase.
Generally, most of the excavation for the pond involves digging in black dirt that is roughly the same consistency as chocolate cake. It’s not very difficult until you encounter roots.
The garden project is like a sculpture that slowly reveals itself as an artist chips away stone. It is rewarding to see the return of many ferns, peonies, day lilies, hosta, lily of the valley, iris, wildflowers and other perennials I managed to plant last year.
Each section of the garden project seems to progress in phases. Cleaning up and removing debris was an early phase. Creating borders and planting was another. Turning over the soil in between plants to mitigate the aggressive weeds is another.
It sounds like a lot of work, but the approach is designed to save labor in the long run. If I simply cut off the weeds at the surface, they quickly grow back. The soil needs to be turned over and the weed roots removed.
It’s a laborious process that involves separating soil, rocks, vegetation and debris. But it’s oddly satisfying and I enjoy the work. I often remind myself that there is no rush and that quality matters more than speed.
Working in the yard reminds me of playing in a sandbox as a kid. I’m usually happiest while working in the yard, though I’m not a fan of mud and cold, wet weather.
If I had bought a typical property, one where the yard had not been neglected for many years, I would be much further along building the pond by now. Sometimes it feels frustrating to survey a work in progress after so many months. Who wouldn’t rather have a finished yard and garden rather than a muddy construction site?
That’s when yard work reminds me that patience is a virtue. The journey is often more fun than the destination. The forecast calls for warmer, drier days ahead. Hot summer days will be here before you know it.
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That’s why it would be nice to make more progress on the pond.
Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.