After nearly 10 years in this house, I finally got sick of staring at a tick-infested backyard. It’s time. I’m not much of a green-fingered DIY-er, but I have something more important than knowledge: I have a slight, temporary, momentary, fleeting feeling of this thing called motivation. I have the urge. And I better do something about it, since I’m easily distracted.

I will learn about plant care here and turn this backyard into a paradise. And if not paradise, at least a place where there are more patches of grass than tree-size weeds. My kids will play here. We will sit on the grass. We will sing songs. Yes–while my kids roll around on the grass, I will sit there and play the guitar. It will be glorious.

Here are the 5 easy steps:

  1. Mow lawn.
  2. Annihilate weeds.
  3. Plant grass seeds.
  4. Cover seeds/shoot birds.
  5. Learn to play the guitar.
Here is the before picture, which doesn’t do justice to the extent of the mess back there:
 
 
Before

And here I am, getting through the first step. Four more to go!

 Step One