This past Sunday, while I was playing in the kitchen with my fresh farmer’s market veggies, Mike was working outside on the backyard.
Our dogs have really done a number on our poor backyard. Since they’re such a high energy breed, they run constantly. By running constantly, they’ve dug trenches into our small yard where grass refuses to grow. They also have this annoying habit of digging tiny little holes EVERYWHERE that are just small enough that you can’t see them and big enough that you feel like you might break your ankle if you take a wrong step.
So, Mike decided to do something about it. Sodding the whole yard would have been thousands of dollars, so we decided on a cheaper option. We bought topsoil, high traffic grass seed, and peat moss. Mike mixed it all up and spent all day filling up the holes in our yard.
Yeaaah. Lots and lots of little holes that Mike filled up.Lots and lots of dirt for the dogs to roll around in. Hopefully, lots and lots of seeds will sprout too!
Here’s a comparison…on the left, that’s where Mike has laid down dirt and seed. On the right…where the dogs run so fast, hard and often that grass just won’t grow ;( We’ll have to break it up before we put dirt down there…it’s too dry and hard for seeds to take root.
Zoe: Why you covering up all my hard work? I’ll just do it again, you know.
Mike: Sigh…I know.
This is the dismal state of the other side of the yard. It’s on an incline, so not only does any dirt we put down run off with water, but it’s in the path of the destroyers, aka, our dogs.
Destroyer #1 (Zoe)
Destroyer #2 (Wrigley)
Oh, and did I mention they’re eating the dirt that we’re putting down? Yeah. So this will definitely work, right?
Even if it doesn’t, it was a $200 project, and hopefully it won’t hurt the yard’s chances of growing more grass! Seriously, we just don’t know if it’s possible to fix all of this while we/our dogs still live in the house. We’ll see.
So while Mike was doing that, I planted some new veggies!
Some of our tomatoes–I planted a lot of fun heirloom varieties this year, so I’m excited to see them!
Our peppers/herbs
and our strawberries. Usually by midsummer, they’ll branch out enough to cover the entire box! Unfortunately, last year Destroyer #1 and Destroyer#2 ate them ALL and we only had like, 2 strawberries. This year will be different though, right guys?
Zoe: Nope, no different.
Wrigley: I really don’t think we’ll change.
Me: Oh. Well…I guess we’ll love you anyway.
Wrigley & Zoe: We know.
Haha, let’s see how this goes! Maybe we’ll be super surprised and get a yard full of grass and bellies full of strawberries this year! Maybe!
Do you have the odds stacked against you for your yard? Does anyone have dogs who don’t like to destroy all living things? What’s that like?
(JK, we love our dogs, and while they are definitely better/calmer now than they used to be, they’ll always be extremely high energy dogs. We signed up for this & love them madly. They’re just mischievous little devils. In fact, since I’ve written this and before I posted it, we found Destroyer #1 shoulder deep in a hole she dug. Battle of wills: Begin!)
