And the yard work begins...
One of our (many) favourite things about our big old house was the expansive yard. We were so fortunate to find a home with a huge lot. It may have been a beautiful space in its day, but by the time we arrived it was far past its prime. Having found old plant labels in what was once a greenhouse, we could tell the yard would have been filled with gorgeous flowers, herbs and vegetables, not long forgotten.
The yard was filled with old piles of lumber and windows, the remains of a greenhouse, and a shed (we later discovered to be a pigeon coop now inhabited by a family of raccoons.)
Where did all this stuff come from?!
We began work on the yard immediately. The seller was kind enough to let us enter the property to start work even before we were due to receive the keys in December. We were so grateful to make use of the warmer autumn weather in order to tackle the mountain of mess ahead.
Dermot, Faelan and I started working on weekends, spending the majority of the day there. With little Faelan either sleeping in the stroller, or hanging out on one of our backs, we pruned and ripped out years of blackberry bushes, morning glory and weeds. With every wheelbarrow load to the truck, you could start to see just how lovely this yard was going to be.
And then the dumpsters came…
We had it in our sale agreement that the seller was to remove all the material and junk from the entire house and yard (other than the items we tagged to keep). Luckily, we were able to unearth more and more piles for them to take, as we’re sure they would have left the extra pieces had we not uncovered them.
Piles of original wood windows stashed in the backyard, slowly crumbling away after fifty odd years.
It was shocking how much junk was littered throughout the yard. Old plastic, wood scraps, windows, buckets, and even a few steak knives. It was a fun treasure hunt of what the weirdest thing we’d find next was.
Life is tough for a comfy little nine month old.
Dreams, dreams, dreams…
This is going to be a long road but I have big dreams for this garden, let’s see how long it takes us to get there!
x
Natalie