so I called around to a couple of landscapers to get a rough idea how much it would cost to fix the front yard..rough estimate anywhere from 1-2 grand depending plus no guarantees because we have so many dogs that pee.
well shit thought I..i could do it myself way cheaper so today on my first day of vacation I hiked my butt down to the store and bought a three prong hoe, a hand held pokey holey thing and a bunch of lime and hauled it all home...total cost $130.
an hour later with a 4x4 foot square of clean bare nicely tilled dirt, I was about ready to freaking die.
so that sucked big time and there was no way on earth I was even going to attempt going further because I actually do value being alive.
plan B was a little robotic manly guy that I could plug in and turn on and off as needed to do it all for me but I couldn't find one of those.
plan C was a little old lady sized rototiller that will not go deep enough to wreck our very shallow water lines... $579 on sale for $450. three hours later the dead and rotting clumps of grass are gone, the soil is nicely soft and tilled. and tomorrow I can lay out the lime.
now I am thinking that sweet little machine might work mighty fine out in the big field where the earth is packed down way too tight. might make my grass growing out in the field go even better.
hmmm..its a little machine...it's a big freaking field...
I should have just hired the landscaping guys.
to alleviate the packed dirt in the big field you could invest in a whole bunch of worms. I live on a perfectly wretched combination of clay and scrabble and the wiggly little babies can even bust that up. plus the worm castings will feed your grass.