The Yard

Standing at the beginning of our restoration project...


Sage from our yard...

Over the years, our back yard has fallen into a state of disrepair, perhaps as a result of dogs, kids, busy schedules, and just a little laziness. Our front yard is still green at least, but the back yard has never been a high priority on my list of things to do.

Recently, I developed a new interest in the back yard through a rather strange turn of events. Oddly, my interest began with an aversion to trampolines.

My son has begged me for years to buy a tampoline, but I steadfastly resisted his attempts to pursuade me. "They're dangerous," I always said, "I've known too many people who have broken their bones or suffered serious injury as a result of the trampoline." My arguments never impressed him much. The begging always continued until I finally invoked the parental end-all known as "We can't have a trampoline because I say so." That always worked.

That is, until yesterday. Somehow the topic of conversation took a nauseating turn back to the subject of trampolines. Dakota resumed his begging, but after years of valiant resistance, I finally reached a compromise. "Okay," I blurted, "If you help me restore our back yard to perfection, I will buy you a trampoline." He agreed without hesitation.

With no small amount of satisfaction, Dakota took out his pencil and paper and began to plan our new yard. Of course, things will be different this time. I told him we are going to attempt something more environmentally friendly than what we had before.

Years ago, I had purchased several indigenous plants for our back yard, including sage and wild rose. While many of our decorative plants have died, the native plants continue to thrive. This is because indigenous plants are better adapted to our local ecosystem and require less maintenance. They demand less water and make less of an impact on our local water supply.

Our new yard will still have a grassy area in the center, but it will be considerably smaller than before. We will expand the areas of indigenous plants along the edges of the yard. We will plant more roses, sage, Oregon grape, service berry, and others. I can hardly wait to see the end result.

A large and expensive project lies ahead, but it doesn't matter. Working together, we will create a new yard step by step. As an added measure of accountability, I will report on our progress from time to time on this blog. Of course, Dakota will never let me forget, because we did make a deal, after all. His drawing already includes the location of his trampoline to be.