After almost finishing the widows and siding we decided it was time to get rid of the giant pile of dirt in the front and the muddy mess our yard had become.
We had the guy that dug the trench for the sewer and water lines come back with his equipment and spread the pile of dirt over the front and back yards.
The yard was then graded to make sure rain water would drain away from the foundation of our house. This was a big muddy mess!
Then we had to wait for the ground to dry out.
This is the rake that Kevin's dad invented. The metal tines that you see are big lag bolts that he drilled through a sturdy wood frame.
We placed a piece a stone from the yard on top of the rake to keep it weighted in the back. It was then attached to the back of the Cub Cadet mower.
Kevin drove the rake up and down the yard to loosen the top few inches of soil. This is because after the ground dried out it was packed down and extremely hard.
After that I put down the grass seed and fertilizer with the seeder we borrowed from our friend Joe. Thanks Joe! Here are the bales of straw we used to cover the seeds.
Here is the front yard covered in straw. The straw holds moisture against the ground so the grass seed can grow.
Here's the backyard. It took us several hours and about 20 bales of straw to cover the whole yard. We then watered and waited.
In about two weeks we started seeing little sprouts of grass peeking through the straw!
A few more little patches of grass...
And then more...
And more...
And then... POOF! A yard full of grass! This picture was taken about 5 weeks after we planted the grass seed.
Here's a shot of the back of the house.
We kept watering and watching and finally it was time to mow!
Then next few pictures are what the yard looks like now.
Beautiful green grass! Who knew we had such green thumbs!
