For the last couple of years, Curtis and I have been talking about putting a garden in our back yard. We've also talked about doing some improvements to the back yard as well. Such as: cutting down one of the trees, getting rid of the berms, adding more dirt in the yard (especially along the fence) and turning our "rock" gardens into flowers. While we were going to school, we didn't really have to time to try and do the projects. However, with the help of my brother Parley, we are starting to get things done. At the end of the summer last year, he came over and cut down the tree and took the stump out. This year we talked to him about tilling the berms up and leveling the ground where they were. Since Parley works as a crane operator, he hasn't been working much at all the past several months as construction has practically come to a halt...which leaves him lot of extra time to help others. :o) He was determined to help us get a garden in this year along with helping a few other family and friends start theirs as well. So here's how things happened at our house last month:
Parley showed up one random day with a rototiller and his 4-wheeler w/a plow attached to the front. He started on the biggest berm (the right side back corner), tilling across the top and then pushing it off and repeated this several times. (the ground was pretty hard and he could only till a few inches deep at a time) Now keep in mind that we all knew that there was a possibility of hitting the sprinkler system as we are doing this, but we didn't think it would actually happen because all the sprinklers are along the fence and in the "rock" beds and not in the middle of the yard. Parley had turned on the irrigation so that we could have all the sprinkler heads pop up and see where they were.
Problem one: a fountain sprang up next to the house. When we finally found the problem, it looked like a dog had chewed off part of the pipe that was capped off and not in use, until then. Okay, so we could live with that and not worry about exactly where the sprinkler heads are.
Problem two: While tilling (not even 1/4 of the way down into the berm) the tiller catches some wire. We found out that it's the electrical wire for the sprinkler system that went to one of the boxes, that just happened to be next to the berm. Bummer! But still fairly easy to fix.
Problem three: The berm is about 1/2 trimmed down and we find the sprinkler pipe. Yep, sure enough it is going diagonally across the yard, in the middle of the berm. Great!!! Now we get to replace some pipe. Thankfully my brother is a man of many traits and can fix and do just about everything around the house or outside in the yard, so he was already planning on fixing everything. It just meant that we had to fix the sprinkler system before we could start our garden.
After all of those problems, we all decided to just leave the other berm in the yard (the left side back corner) because it has the telephone company's big green box on one side of it, and if we damaged that at all then the whole neighborhood would be w/out a phone or Internet for a while and we would have to pay to have it fixed.
It took about a week to get the sprinkler system fixed, but Parley got it done (with the help of his friend Phil & Phil's girlfriend). He also took one of the side gates out and hauled in several truck loads of dirt to spread around the berm we didn't take out and make it more of a gradual hill instead of so abrupt and hard to mow. We also spread dirt along the back fence where the ground had sunk a couple inches (that allowed the neighbor's dogs to squeeze under and get in our yard).
We decided that we wanted to have a square-foot garden, but make it deeper. So Parley also built us two 4ft by 8 ft (and 12 in. deep) boxes for our garden. We filled them with some of the dirt he brought over and then added compost, vermiculite and peat moss. We were able to get some things planted (peas, onions and carrots) as soon as the first box was filled and before the sprinkler pipe was fixed. However, since then it's been too wet and muddy to plant anything else. The first week our sprinklers would turn on even though it was in the off position in the control box (I think it's fixed now) and then all of the rain we've had in the last week or so hasn't helped us. I have seen some onions and carrots start to sprout, and am hoping to get the rest of our garden planted this weekend.
Trying to find where the pipe goes
Spreading dirt around in the back corner.
Parley fixing the pipe
A look at where the pipe and electrical wire were
Proof that we had 2 full sized trucks in the back yard full of dirt
(We've had a total of 4 truck loads of dirt and we may
bring in one more to help level the yard)
Curtis and Parley mixing the dirt for the garden
One bed done and ready to be planted :o)
What the finished product looks like
THANKS PARLEY FOR ALL YOUR HELP!!!!
I was very amused by the center piece. It's an FMRI water bottle with a rose in it. Sadly I didn't get the opportunity to take it home. However the dessert that you see was to die for!!
A view of the room and all the people standing around the bar.
The view of the valley from one side of the room
A view from another corner of the room
Dr. Rulon and I after the event was over. 
A self portrait of us outside the building
Since I don't look this good all the time, 
My handsome husband!!!!
We go so well together! :o)
