Let the Landscaping Begin!

It's going to be a slow process, but the landscaping of our yard has officially begun! When we moved into our home our builder had only cleared a small portion of our lot and seeded (basically enough to appease the inspectors and to show the "buildable" portion of our lot). They surrounded this area with lovely black tarps to prevent erosion while the new grass grew.

A view of our home & yard from the farthest corner of our property.

A.R. and I had been debating whether or not to get the rest of our lot mowed or not as we knew it would be quite a bit more work for him come next spring/summer especially with a newborn. Curiosity about the true size of our lot got the best of us and we started exploring our options. We spoke with the company that's been spraying our yard for ticks all summer and fertilizing the small patches of grass we do have and come to find out they had the equipment necessary to mow and finish the last piece of our lot. Also, we learned that the best time to seed and start a new lawn in New England is right NOW! We got some quotes and took the plunge and holy crap were we surprised...

A good portion of the newly mowed section. The row of bushes in the background were planted by our builder, but got completely buried in brush this summer.

It's hard for me to visualize distances and square footage unless it's just right there in front of me to eye. I knew where the stakes were on our lot as we walked them many times before moving in, but the ones marking the back corner have long since been buried beneath waist high grass, weeds, and wildlife. When I crested the hill and looked behind our house last Wednesday I was shocked to see our yard mowed. I walked it with Tomas and he promptly settled in and took a dump in the middle (I think he knows it's his play ground now!) with a lowered jaw from shock. Our yard is a lot bigger then I had envisioned it! I love it and so does A.R. until he realized how much he'll be mowing next year!!

Another view from the farthes stake of our side yard.

He's just about convinced me to cave in and let him get that inground pool he wants, so he has less lawn to mow. I know how much work pools are, too, so I still hesitate a bit and of course it won't happen until our kids are older and wiser (I'm terrified of a toddler falling in and drowning even with a fence). This first mowing was just the beginning. The landscapers will be mowing and raking the area two more times before laying a herbivore down to kill the weeds and garbage out there. Then they'll aerate our whole lawn (new and old portion) and reseed the whole thing. Then it's up to us to water religiously and pray to the grass gods we get some awesome regrowth in the springtime. Next on our list of yard work: replace the dying tree in the front yard (after the builder digs it up) with a dogwood my Grandmother is getting for us and start exploring decks for the back of the house.

A portion of our yard as seen from our walk-out basement.