Sod Busting in Suburbia

[nikki1]

Actually, we're sort of in between the suburbs and the sticks. Last summer we purchased our first house. It sits on 1.5 acres. A third of that is cleared, fenced, and vaguely yard-like if you squint and have a good imagination. The other acre is a brushy wooded hill down to a creek.

So right now we're turning our grass into Phase 2 of Turning a Field of Weeds and Brambles Into a Real Yard. (Phase 1 was whacking down weeds taller than our second grader last summer. Second grader really likes grass snakes, which worked out well for him!) Phase 2 is, you guessed it, sod busting.

Turns out we live on an ancient glacial deposit. You dig down about 4 inches and find a big, undiggable pile of rocks. It's a good thing I like a challenge. I spent the afternoon digging and sifting. There's GOT to be a good use for a pile of fist-sized rocks. Path lining, perhaps?

Meanwhile, our garage is given over to coop building, and our master bathroom is now home to a chickie brooder filled with my new fluffy babies. My mom, who has the heart of an in-town girl, has taken to calling me "Farmer Nikki." Good thing she doesn't know of my eventual plan to get a goat to take care of the man-eating blackberry brambles that grow around here!

Wish me luck! Hope you don't mind, but I just needed an outlet to share my projects. I love this place!

--Nikki

 

[speckledhen]

Best of luck! Sounds like you have an adventurous spirit and quite a bit of determination. I know about rocks, living here in the mtns of N. Ga.

 

[nikki1]

"Quite a bit of determination" is just code for "Stubborn as a pig!" I actually embrace both. The rocks have been there since the last ice age, but boy howdy, they're moving now! I have seeds to plant!

The local raccoons better watch out, too. Once my girls are big enough to go outside, they'd best clear out! I'm more of a danger to myself than I am to them with a shotgun (which is why we don't have one), but I know where to get electric fencing, and I know how to crank up the juice!

Funny story. A lady at the feed store was having trouble with raccoons. She had a dog that was very friendly and protective toward the chickens, but a terror to predators, so they started leaving him out in the run overnight, and never had trouble with coons again!

Thanks for the reply. I go now to paint some coop framing and take some Advil. I have the soul of a 20-something, but the lower back of the 43 that I actually am!

--Nikki

 

[Mattemma]

I hope you are taking pictures of everything as you make the changes. Would love to see.I have done it with our yard,and it is fun to look back at what we started with. My project this year is making garden beds using landscape timber,and digging a dry riverbed/pond to collect rain run off that floods the yard.All by hand too.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
Oh, Nikki, how I relate to that remark!! I'm a bit older than you are, too. But, remember, if you quit moving, you turn to stone, like Lot's wife, so keep hustling!

 

[chickened]

You can use rocks for a fence just start stacking them. I dug on a rock for 2 days with an excavator before it would move. We blasted it so I could pick it up. The make a rock picker.

Actually, we're sort of in between the suburbs and the sticks. Last summer we purchased our first house. It sits on 1.5 acres. A third of that is cleared, fenced, and vaguely yard-like if you squint and have a good imagination. The other acre is a brushy wooded hill down to a creek.

So right now we're turning our grass into Phase 2 of Turning a Field of Weeds and Brambles Into a Real Yard. (Phase 1 was whacking down weeds taller than our second grader last summer. Second grader really likes grass snakes, which worked out well for him!) Phase 2 is, you guessed it, sod busting.

Turns out we live on an ancient glacial deposit. You dig down about 4 inches and find a big, undiggable pile of rocks. It's a good thing I like a challenge. I spent the afternoon digging and sifting. There's GOT to be a good use for a pile of fist-sized rocks. Path lining, perhaps?

Meanwhile, our garage is given over to coop building, and our master bathroom is now home to a chickie brooder filled with my new fluffy babies. My mom, who has the heart of an in-town girl, has taken to calling me "Farmer Nikki." Good thing she doesn't know of my eventual plan to get a goat to take care of the man-eating blackberry brambles that grow around here!

Wish me luck! Hope you don't mind, but I just needed an outlet to share my projects. I love this place!

--Nikki

 

[rrrmamma]

Nikki, you might want to consider raised beds of some sort. I don't have so many rocks, but pure clay soil. After having two poor years with limited yield (and a sore back from trying to till the stuff) we went with raised beds filled with topsoil and compost. Actually got enough produce to can and freeze last season. A coop built like Fort Knox deters most predators.Good luck with your projects. I think I keep the makers of Alleve in business