Our makeover of our boring side yard has begun! As we decided last year we’re foregoing (most) gifts for our 3-year-old in favor of creating a great outdoor play space. I wrote about our initial steps in this post, if you’d like to check it out.
To give a little extra padding to Miss O and a better look to the space we ordered 2 cubic yards of mulch. We ordered it from a local supply store and saved on delivery costs by renting a truck from Home Depot. The truck was $29, delivery would have been $110 (we had 2 different types of mulch for different areas of the yard).
Unfortunately, our calculations we a little off. Well… a lot off. Not even half the space is covered. It’s a little embarrassing.
You see that small patch of light brown, cedar mulch? Yep, that’s it. 2 cubic yards of mulch. Of course we need to add some toys and whatnot to the area which will take up space, but something tells me we’re still going to have plenty of uncovered area when everything’s in. I can’t be sure of that, though, because obviously I suck at math.
The next thing to do was to section off the area we plan to use with the “fencing”. I use the word fencing loosely because it’s only a couple inches tall, but it’s cute and it does the job. It’s also super easy to put in and take out, which is proving to be more handy than I originally thought.
We chose the side yard for the play area because we’ve never been able to get grass to grow there because it’s too shady. As luck would have it, this year’s late spring meant that the leaves didn’t grow on the trees as early as usual, letting more sun in, giving us a beautiful, slightly patchy, green lawn in the play area. Until the leaves take over and the grass dies I’ll have to take up the fence when hubby mows the lawn and put it back when he’s done. I’m considering trying this natural herbicide (the post calls it a weed killer, but it kills all plants, so use it with caution) to get rid of the suddenly enthusiastic grass.
I’m still not sure what to do about the much issue. I don’t think more mulch is in the budget, so we may just have to live with it for a year. Miss O won’t care – I guess I can let it go.
