Oh, my aching back!

I spent five hours today prepping the area where the big pile of dirt sat over winter; getting it ready for planting some grass seed. Having 15-20 cubic yards of soil dumped on it can really compress the ground and kill off the just emerging grass. I was going to use just a short-handled pitch fork and a rake but there were so many stones and the clay was compacted so hard that I needed my 16 pound big, black bar to break it up and lever the bigger stones out of the ground.

The area in question is about 15 feet by 15 feet and I wanted to loosen the top three or four inches. Unfortunately I found enough big flat stones just an inch or two below the surface to build yet another retaining wall as soon as I figure out where to put it. And there was one monster that was just about 3 inches down that I never did get under; so I reburied it right where it sat. Luckily its in a spot I will never want to put a tree or any other perennial plant.

Four hours into the project, I was ready to haul back two wheelbarrows of soil from my temporary storage pile on the other side of the yard and scatter that soil on top of the loosened earth. Over this I spread three bags of dehydrated cow manure and humus. I then raked to remove the smaller stones from the loosened stuff and mix the soils.

Finally, I gave the surface a light raking with a leaf rake and spread some Scotts starter fertilizer and grass seed. (I admit to using a little more of both than the 225 square feed called for--about enough for 500 sq. ft.) Then I watered the area for 15 minutes before spreading a layer of straw (about 2/3 of a bale) over the surface and watering a second time to wet the straw.

All this was done with one eye on the sky as there were thunderstorms forecast for right after noon. Of course, while the clouds darkened the sky from time to time, the rain never materialized. But they are promising them for tonight sometime between 8 PM (a half hour ago) and 1 AM. I will believe it when I hear the thunder boomers---no, make that hear the water in the gutter, we had thunder all yesterday and got about 20 drops of rain here at the Aerie, but all around us....

Anyway, with all the physical labor today, I'm about to pour me a nice cold beer and then early to bed.