My front lawn is a bit of a mess. The house is newly built and the builders did a pretty decent job of it, but the yard was left as a real wasteland. Massive patches of wilderness-like long grass, other patches of bare dirt and rock, building debris and rubbish everywhere and a big half-buried silt barrier that left a massive dirt scar along the entire front and right side boundary when I pulled it up. I also had two big piles of dirt and rocks left by the concreter and landscaper respectively. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get the lawn looking half decent so it didn’t look like a scene out of Mad Max.
Originally I had planned to turf it, but as seems to always happen with people who build their dream home – unexpected expenses have run us short on cash. So I also want to do it on the cheap. While I was figuring it out and juggling my other life priorities I had the big dirt mound at the front sprout a good tuft of grass….yeh, it seems like it’s only easy to get it growing where you don’t want it to. But I have taken a glass half full approach and decided to do a bit of an experiment. After all, before I had kids I wasn’t too bad as a green thumb so I wondered if I could transplant that unwanted grass?
That’s what the photo is showing. Last weekend with the help of the wife and kids I finally levelled out that front dirt pile. I pulled clumps of the Kikuyu grass out of it so that I could transplant it back into the levelled off ground. The photo is the view from the top balcony and I figured that if I kept it pretty well watered then maybe….just maybe….it’ll take hold. It’s been a pretty dry Winter here so far so it’s kind of the worst time of year to be watching grass grow, but here it is – on the blockchain – so wish me luck and maybe in a few months (or years) it’ll look like a normal lawn. Until then my kids can play in the dirt but at least my front lawn doesn’t look like too much of a bomb site any more.