Amber vs. The Backyard: Warm-Up Round

I've dabbled in the backyard a couple times, pulling some weeds and sweeping leaves by the hot tub, but nothing too serious. I'm not physically (or financially) prepared for a full-on battle with the backyard yet.

However, last night I went for a warm-up round in the ring with the backyard. I was motivated because our greenery curbside pickup in my neighborhood was the next morning. My greens bin was already full from butchering my Little Shop of Horrors shrub, but I stole my neighbor's since they didn't use it (it's the house being remodeled next door).

Yes, I was actually excited to have an entire, empty greens bin to fill up. Not that I know what "yardwork" or "gardening" actually is. I'm great with indoor plants and even know how to re-pot them once they get to big for their britches, but I'm clueless about the outdoors. What's the difference between trimming and pruning? The only tools I have are my gloves, a pair of clippers, and a hand shovel. And the rusty, bent rake that was left in my garage.

Since it was nice and cool when I went outside at 6pm, I decided I'd see what I could get done before it got dark. Here's my breathtaking backyard:

The lighting is rough - just take note of all the patches of bushy, green stuff in all these pics.

I decided I'd see how much of that greenish ground cover I could remove. I don't know what it is. It might not even be a weed, but I decided to treat it like one.

This is ALL over my backyard. Whatever it is.

All I know is it's not grass and it's not doing anything for my yard, so it's got to go. And went it did, without much effort. I didn't even need any tools! Just my gloves. To my surprise, there weren't even many creepy crawlies hiding in the weeds. Just a lot of old, petrified dog poop - YUCK!

Whatever these plants were, they were really easy to pull out of the ground. The roots aren't too deep and it's more of a sprawling plant; some roots in the middle and then the plant just grows out, laying across the top of the dirt.

I managed to get ALL the weeds pulled up and it only took an hour. My back was aching though. And I think all the birdies that hang out in my back yard are probably excited because I just made all the seeds that fall from the trees I constantly see them eating out of my yard SUPER easy to get to. Bon appetite my little friends!

After an hour of working.

Now instead of a backyard full of weeds, dirt and dead stuff...

.... I have a backyard full of just dirt and dead stuff =)

This weekend I'm going for round two and clearing out all the dead underbrush that's piled up under the trees along the fence. I actually have a little pond/water fixture back there, but it's full of dead leaves. I'm also going to try and clear a lot of the weeds and leaves out of the front yard as well.