We Sod

Part of the reason I wanted a flagstone patio was because I wanted to up-cycle the old flagstone from the old pond at our new house. When we bought our house there was a water feature in the front yard as you walked up to the front door.

It wasn't a terrible water feature, but just not my taste. More specifically, I thought the location really closed off the patio and front door. I wanted to open up the space and make our front door more inviting.

This water feature also had a lot of textures going of and I was just not feeling it.

Worse... my Brown Eyed Girl and Mr Blue Eyes thought we bought a house with a built in swimming pool/splash park.

All that yummy melted snow water and fall leaves. The perfect place I wanted to find them as the weather was getting warmer. 

Those flagstone pieces were just too comfortable. They provided the perfect little seat for dipping rubber boot toes in. 

Last spring all I could say was, "Gone baby gone!"
"Handy Man get the tractor!"

We had to transplant those two little trees. So far they are still alive and kicking. 

The green bucket if for worm catching in case you were wondering. There were a lot of worm living under that pond liner. 

A little Handy Man excavation...

And we were ready for sod!

Optimal sod time is early spring or fall. We missed both...

Distracted by our back yard project, we just kept putting off sodding the front yard. By summer's end, it was a weed bed that grew some of the finest goat head plants this side of the Mississippi. I was plagued all fall and winter with goat heads hitching a rid into the house.

Nothing will drop a grown man to the ground faster than a goat head in the heel. 

So this spring, 2014, we finally got around to sodding the yard.

Handy Man of course refused to rent one of these...

to prepare the soil properly after he had removed all of the old, dead weeds. Because he is (and I quote) a "human rototiller."

Just excuse number 132546435878 to play with the tractor.

 

After hand tilling several bags of soil with our native soil, we were ready for the sod. 

I quickly learned that sod is very heavy. I can not lift a single roll by myself and I really don't like laying sod. 

But it sure is nice to look at when it's all finished.