The story of my yard so far...

My wife and I have lived in our home for just under 2 years now, so we're just getting started with our yard.  I enjoy yard work.  I'm not a master gardener by any means, but I enjoy getting outside and playing in the dirt.  I like planting trees and flowers and I hope to start a vegetable garden this year.

Last year my main yard goal was to get our sprinker system installed and sod laid.  I did some ground prep by tilling in an entire semi truck load of composted turkey manure.  I found a Website that some guy set up to teach people how to properly design and install a home irrigation system.  I studied his suggestions and designed my sprinkler system.  I got some input from my father-in-law, who also enjoys this kid of thing.  I listened to the KSL Greenhouse Show on Saturdays for more tips.  I calculated the flow rates in each of my sprinkler lines.  I bought sprinkler heads that have pressure regulators built in so that they will always operate at 30 psi, and at that pressure, I know the amount of water that will be flowing out of each sprinkler head and how far it will spray.  Maybe I over-planned, but it sure was fun.  That was May through July, I think.  I was studying for the CPA exam during this time, too, but the sprinklers were much more fun.

Once I got everything planned out how I thought would work, I hired a guy to come and trench my yard.  What took him an hour and a half to do for $190 would have taken me a whole lot longer to do (with insane amounts of swearing, I'm sure).  Money well spent, I say.  That was August.

I spent September, October, and part of November laying my sprinkler pipe and installing the sprinklers.  That's when it really got fun.  I also spent that time trying to keep my neighbors out of my yard so that my trenches wouldn't collapse before I got pipes in them.  That wasn't so fun.  I got the pipes all glued and the sprinkler heads installed and the valves hooked up and the irrigation water turned on and it all worked great.  I was very proud of myself.  

Then in mid-November, I ordered three dumptruck loads of top soil to be delivered, and I hired a landscape company owned by a friend of mine to come and spread the topsoil and level my yard.  Again, I could have done this myself, but it would have taken me even more time, and there would have been even more swearing, I'm sure.  Definitely worth the money.  This same friend ordered the sod for me at his discounted contractor rate, too.  He said it was the premium, top of the line sod and what he would use for his own yard.  I was nervous about the "premium, top of the line" comment, because that pretty much always means "most expensive."  However, his contractor discount was awesome because that made the price less than what other people around paid for the less-expensive stuff from other sod companies.  That brought a little bit of a smile to my face.

One beautiful chilly Saturday in the later part of November, my wife, her dad and brother, my sister, my nephew, and I got up and rolled out the 6000 square feet of sod that we ordered.  (No neighbors helped, even though I helped most of my neighbors with theirs.... no ward members helped, and the Elders Quorum President forgot to tell the service chairman about it... so thanks.)  We got it worked out, and the sod looked great.  We started watering it and I even threw down a fertilizer specific for new sod applications.  

Then about a week or so later, it snowed.

The snow stayed there pretty much until March.  When it melted, we were happy to see that our grass was still there, that it didn't die or anything.  We were really surprised to see that it was still kinda green, since it was still technically the dormant season for grass.

Well, a few weeks have passed.  It's now officially spring.  I haven't turned on my sprinklers yet, because it's way to early in the season for that, especially in our little desert of Utah.  But check this out...

This is the view from the street...

This is a view from our upstairs back window...

This is another view from our upstairs back window...

Can you see where my property line is?  I have the only green lawn in the neighborhood.  I'm pretty happy about that, especially because we have a know-it-all on the street who likes to tell people how they should be doing things his way because it's so much better.  I hope that this is a sign of good, healthy grass, and not just a fluke.  I hope that all of my preparations will continue to pay off.  I also hope that my neighbor with the playground there won't flood my yard again this year.