Operation Back Yard Part 6

When living in the "city," one has a house in the middle of a lot. Also, six feet of yard on either side. Hence the name "side yard." This area is often used as a walkway. Sometimes it's used as a junkway. 

This was the case with our East side yard. It never grew grass very well because it only received sun from noon to 3, never got rain, and was hot because of the large amounts of brick and concrete around. We used it as a graveyard for all our junk we didn't want to look at and didn't have space for in the garage.

Ew.

Solution? Lava rock and lots'o'weed block.

Step 1: Clear out the junk.
We trashed a lot of stuff: wood scraps, extra trash cans, old potting soil, ugly metal fence panels, and trash. We also stored a lot of stuff where it should go: speedy weedy, gas crawfish boiler thingy, other garden tools, and pavers.


Step 2: Eliminate weed-trees and grass.
There are these lovely weed-trees that tend to grow just about anywhere out here in W.Tex. We've always cut them back but never got rid of the root. Well we dug out about three that were about 3-4" diameter.

Next, we used some fancy-shmancy grass killer to kill off all the bermuda and other weeds. This made them easier to pull out from the root just before raking.


Step 3: Rake and grade ground.
We took a rake to the tree/grass-free yard to get rid of the extra dead leaves/grass/big clumps o'dirt. Travis took a shovel and chopped up the dirt to give us some extra to work with.

Because we don't want water pooling around the foundation, we graded the dirt from West to East and North to South. Slightly higher next to the house so water would drain away. Slightly higher toward the front of the house so water would drain toward the back yard.

We could have been really picky, but because we're lazy we eyeballed it.


Step 4: Weed block the world.
We were real tired of the "landscaping fabric" method of weed-controlling. So...we decided to just kill whatever the heck was planning on growing below it. A roll of 6 mil black plastic was our weapon.

Step 5: Lava rock it.
We wen't to a few places to check out prices on lava rock. Apparently they vary way more than I thought. For our space we needed approximately 6'x30' which is about 180 sq ft.

Our local nursery sells bulk materials and was very helpful deciding how much we should estimate for. They have information on cubic feet and yard coverage by square footage and depth here.

We compared prices based on approximately 1 cubic yard [CY] (27 cubic feet [CF]).
$100 + $45 = $145.00 Local Nursery - 1 CY Bulk + Delivery
$4.99 x 27 = $134.73 Local Nursery - 1 CF Bag
$3.99 x 54 = $215.46 OrangeStore - .5 CF Bag
$3.80 x 27 = $102.60 BlueStore - 1 CF Bag

Um....OrangeStore?! What the french toast?! We even asked the cashier to double check the price. That was way unexpected. Initially, the bulk load sounded like the best idea, but with the hassle of delivery plus the extra cost and having to wait to complete the project we nixed it. We didn't check WallyWorld because they employees there are never helpful and I pretty much avoid that store if at all possible. The BlueStore ended up having the best price so we went with them.

We started with 15 bags, which got us about 2/3 finished. We made a second trip for 10 more and were able to go about 3" deep in some places.


Step 6: Reflect and Enjoy
Total cost for this side-yard makeover:
$00.00 - Clean Up
$20.00 - Black Landscaping Plastic
$102.84 - Lava Rock (Self-Delivered and Installed)
-----------
$122.84

Also, this was a single-day project. In fact, it was a 5-hour project. Perfect for my short attention span!

Well worth it if you ask me. No more trees. No more mowing. No more spiders living in the old wood (ew). Looks nice with very little effort.