The previous owners of our house had dogs. Anyone who’s ever had a dog knows that they leave hard-trodden trails that usually lead from the back door to various views through the fence. Well, our back yard was one huge dirt trail. The erosion was so bad, and the grass was so sparse, that any trip to the backyard resulted in red footprints throughout our house. So when we dug out the beds for our garden, I spread the leftover soil around the worst parts of the yard and dropped some grass seed.
This is what it looked like last Spring.
What difference a year makes:
I put down mostly fescue, since our yard is shaded by oak and maple trees, but I mixed in some quick-growing rye to act as a guard against erosion. The rye did its job and the yard filled in nicely after a couple more coats of seed. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll kill the weeds and fertilize the grass this Fall, and next Spring I’ll have a nice and thick backyard. Who knows, maybe we’ll even get the bocce ball set out?
