Tractor – traditionsbytheseasons.com

Ok, I’m here to dish the DIRT, literally! So, the reason I haven’t shared the front of our house and yard is because the builder sodded only a portion of our yard, the rest of it was basically farm grass and weeds. We can mow it and it looks nice, but the farm grass grows out of control and we were tired of trying to maintain it.

So what did we do? We scrapped the farm grass and weeds with the tractor. This is how it looked in the spring. We had to remove the rock french drain, and then the whole section of farm grass and weeds.

We are in a VERY rocky terrain, so once we scrapped the ground there were rocks EVERYWHERE, especially under the grass. I now cringe when I hear anyone mention the word rock, as this was such a problematic situation trying to hand pick all the rocks, not fun!

We decided to rent a machine called the…..

R O C K H O U N D

The Rock Hound sweeps up the rocks and puts them in a bucket and then you dump them. You can see after using it, it leaves the ground soft and smooth, free of rocks and debris, what a difference! We also used a Rock Rake attachment on the tractor, a life-saver!

After preparing the ground and soil, we were ready to seed for grass. Afterwards, we put down hay so the seeds can germinate. Now it’s up to the sun and sprinklers to grow a pretty lawn. In two weeks, we should see a HUGE difference.

We also mounded up a landscape bed around our two fruit trees.

We waited all summer for the fruit to grow, now we have more fruit than we know what to do with!

We also have an Italian Pear Tree.

It’s amazing how much works goes into landscaping a big yard, but we are having a blast doing it ourselves.

Soon, the front porch will be decked for Fall and then Christmas….

I can’t wait to show you the yard when it’s pretty like a golf course, at least….that is my dream, ha! We will see….

Thanks for visiting! xoxo ~Liz

Hi everyone! Today, I would like to share a project, our patio expansion project.

The builder put in a rather small patio, which is not big enough for our family, so we are literally….bursting at the seams!

We have lots of projects going on right now. Our lot is just under 5 acres. When we purchased this house, our lot was pretty much being taken over by Blackberry bushes. We have cleared a good 3 acres of our property and are now trying to develop the land and grade it. It’s a huge undertaking and the more you clear, the more you have to maintain, it’s a tricky balance.

So, please excuse the dirt piles in the distance, lol! Hydroseeding is up next, too!

See, this patio barely fits our patio sets. We need lots of seating.

The patio installation begins in 3 weeks, and to save money, the concrete company told us if we could scrape the grass (with our tractor) and dig down about 5-6 inches that would mean huge savings for us since doing that it so labor intensive.

We mapped out the size of the patio we want and began digging with the tractor.

Here is the other side of the patio, it’s going to be HUGE! The other outline you see is where I am going to have a raised flower bed.

Many people think you need to pull the grass up before you lay the dirt down, but it’s not necessary. The grass will die under the darkness of dirt. Occasionally, the grass will grow through, if it does, just hit it with some weed spay….it will die!