Getting started on landscaping

I finally got a couple things to put in the yard. I have a Dwarf North Star cherry tree that will go in the front yard, and some hydrangeas to put out along the side of the garage.

Other plans include putting river rock around the perimeter of the house and figuring out exactly what to do with the little area right in front of the house. I had petunias there last year but I didn't like how they get all gangly as the summer goes on. So if anyone has any suggestions, please post a comment!

Now for pictures.

This is my tree and the hydrangeas waiting to be planted:



This is where the cherry tree will go. The blue outlined area is where the rock will be. Enjoy the bonus artwork!



And this is the part I'm not quite sure what to do. I'm considering Shasta daisies or moss roses.

Storm takes out my fence.

To be honest I knew it was only a matter of time before this thing fell over, and once they took out the big evergreen tree in preparation for the EPA project in the front of the house all we needed was one good storm. We got it last night.

I guess I know what my next project will be!

Stinky and green

The hydro-seeding was done yesterday. It stinks and it looks weird., but I should have grass shortly. Woo hoo.

Here's the yard all filled back up with new, safe dirt:



And after it was hydro-seeded:



Apparently the hydro-seeding apparatus isn't very precise.
Now it just has to be watered daily. The EPA is going to water through the end of the month, rather than the 2 weeks they were suppose to, but after that they are not working for a week because of the RNC. I guess they need to be ready to go at a moment's notice should we have some kind of biological or environment issue. *sigh*

Goodbye stumpy.

Yeah! The stump is gone. The stump is gone!!

I went on Craig's List and found a guy who could do the stump today. I was a little nervous, not knowing what to expect, but Ken, the guy I called, was awesome! He was really nice, he was quick and he did a good job. If you are in the Minneapolis area and need a stump grinder, shoot me an email and I'll give you his information!

Here's Ken grinding it out, followed by the absence of stump. :)

The saga of the stump.

Well, the EPA doesn't want to pay to have my stump ground down any further. As it sits right now if they don't do anything there will be jagged pieces of stump sticking up into the yard when this is done. So, I've had them stop their work for now and I'm going to have the stump ground on my own. I just know I will not be happy the way they were planning on leaving it and if I'm going to go through all this I want to make sure I'll be happy with my yard in the end! I am meeting with a guy in about a half an hour, hopefully he can get it out of there today or tomorrow and the EPA can finish up their work.

EPA clean up - Day one

Everything went well, they have made a lot of progress. I did have an odd moment today when I was in the house and they had put the plastic over the dirt for the evening. Seeing the white ground outside the window made me feel like it was the middle of winter for a split second and actually made me a little disoriented. haha. Anyway, here are some pics of what's going on back there.
The only thing I am concerned about is the stump, you can see it near the chain link fence. I hope they are able to get it further down than it is right now!

3 more days of weeds...

and then in 2 more I'll have a newly hydroseeded (back) yard!! I am so excited! I met with my contact person at the EPA yesterday and she told me what needs to happen and when it needs to happen.

My first step is to go through my back yard and write down everything that is there, plant-wise. How many, what types, etc... My uncle, who went to school for forestry, used to be a landscaper and actually knows what kind of plants they are, will be helping me out with that today.

Then tomorrow I get to take my list to Gerten's and figure out just how much it would cost if I wanted to replace everything that is currently there. Gerten's sounds great, I appreciate they aren't making me go to Flip's Discount Plant Shack and Taqueria to price things out.

Once I've done this (by Monday evening) I send it to my EPA lady, we hopefully agree on the amount, she cuts me a check, and then on Tuesday they show up, remove part of my fence, and start taking out the yard, and then replacing it with new soil. This is going to take a couple of days. Then if all goes well, by Thursday the landscaper will come by, hydroseed the soil, and then come back and water it daily for two weeks. And I should have a glorious, green, plain (back) yard!!

Then, hopefully next year, we get to do the whole thing over in the front.

EPA meeting tomorrow!

I got an email from my contact person at the EPA, she is in town and they are ready to roll on the clean up project. We are meeting tomorrow at 1pm. I assume this is when she will let me know exactly what will happen and when, and hopefully she will take the inventory of all the plants in my backyard. I guess this is when I get to negotiate and make sure that they remove all that I want removed. I hope this goes well and that my yard will be dug up in no time! Keep your fingers crossed.

Weeds galore!

Here are some pictures of my back yard that I mentioned in my last post. This yard is a mess. I'm more of a minimalist when it comes to landscaping, so I'm very excited to get rid of a lot of this stuff.



Here's a close up on the south corner of my yard. There is so much crap growing here I have no idea what is supposed to be there and what is not. There appear to be raspberries, but they aren't edible due to the arsenic in the soil. You can see some of the ferns in the bottom right that I've already managed to kill. I don't have a green thumb, that's for sure!



Here's the north side of the back yard. Those bushes back there are in some sort of depression, the yard goes down about 8 inches out there, where the grass is greener. You can also see the huge stump in the upper middle right. My neighbor said the EPA will negotiate and I should be able to get them to grind it down 12 inches when they removed the top foot of soil. The stump was on her side of the fence as well but they did grind down her side, so I hope they will do the same for me.

EPA Update

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the EPA arsenic clean up project has been delayed, I'm sure that is standard when dealing with a federal government agency. So what was supposed to start in June is now scheduled to start "by August 15th". Who knows when they will get to my property, but I do hope it's soon.

I have basically done nothing with the garden area in the backyard because I know it's going to be ripped out. Part of it is that I don't want to put in too much effort since it's being taken out, and part of it is that I don't want to rip out anything that is actually supposed to be there. I'll be getting a check to replace any plants that are there. Unfortunately I don't know the difference between a weed and a plant for the most part, so my garden just looks like a mess. It's half overgrown and about 1/4 dead, since I've managed to kill about half the ferns. Not that I even want the ferns anyway, but I want to get credit for them from the EPA!! I'll take some pictures today and add them to this post. It's pretty ridiculous.

My contaminated yard.

This was supposed to be the "second of all" in my last post, but I didn't have time to finish.

Yesterday I was talking with my neighbor about her yard and she told me that the EPA had replaced her whole yard because it was contaminated with arsenic. I did some checking around the internet and found out that mine is too! In fact, she and I are 2 of only 3 lots on our block that had levels of arsenic that were too high. I do wonder why this was not disclosed to me in the buying process. The good news is that I should be getting a new yard. The back yard should be done this year. The bad news is the front yard could take up 5 years to be done. I'll keep you updated on this story! Here's some links to read about what is going on.

US EPA website
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