Is It High or Low?

“It’s high here, it looks low here” were words I said and heard many times this weekend as we worked in the backyard. This week’s project was grading the backyard, getting it all going in the direction it needed to and getting it ready for grass. 

I had no idea what I was doing when it came to grading our backyard. I knew that the way it was before someone was going to get hurt, especially children running in the uneven backyard. We also knew that we needed to get the ground going in a direction that the water flowed away from our house and to the back of the yard towards the neighbour to get to the nearest drain. I started this project as I always do by going to trusty old google and searching up “how to grade a backyard.” Some of the results I got were using terminology like I understood what I was doing and had experience. 

I then found this website “Cider Mill Landscaping”, this site was created by a landscaping company who knew exactly what they were talking about. This website gave me step by step instructions of how to grade the backyard, gave me reasons for why I would want to grade a backyard, and supplies I needed. This website was easy to follow, felt like it was meant for beginners & made me confident in what I was doing. 

The Process: 

We started by rototilling up our whole backyard, raking section by section to level in off and had a slight slope to it. We were placing a board and level on the ground quite often especially if we were questioning if it was level or going in the right direction. We had many high spots but also many low spots, our backyard was going in all directions. For the high spots we dug the dirt out and for the low spots we used the dirt we had dug to put in that spot to raise it. This process took multiple days, lots of patience and ended with sore arms.

           

Next Step: 

Next in our backyard journey is to wait a week and to see if the dirt settles at all. If it settles we will need to bring in dirt and do the process all over again with more dirt, this time should be easier as we have a base to just add dirt onto and continue what we have already done. After that we should be ready to seed grass. 

Update on Last Week: 

Last week I planted raspberry bushes, sadly 3 of the plants died and I’m not sure the exact reason. I have removed the dead seedling and the other ones are thriving and doing well. They have rooted and I think with time and water will grow to give us berries in the future.