Backyard On A Budget

Justin Wray
by Justin Wray
3 Materials
$80
1 Week
Easy

Hello everyone! Who’s ready for summer? I know I am! Unfortunately, my backyard couldn’t have said the same a few weeks ago. But now.. with a little hard work and help from Worx Landroid, she’s ready for cookouts, vegetables and fun in the sun! I just want to share that this post was sponsored by Worx Tools, but all the opinions are my own! Let’s get started!

Sad Sad Yard


As you can see the yard needs some work! The winters here in Pennsylvania can be a little brutal on a lawn but not as brutal as the squirrels! (Which I love watching and give them a pass) The yard is definitely in need of some TLC!

An Even Sadder Leftover Pumpkin Patch


When we first moved into this house last year, I thought “Hey, why not start a garden?” Sooo, with the little green thumb that I have, I decided to plant pumpkins in August! Well if anyone knows, you don’t start pumpkins that late! I ended up with a few really nice vines though… these are the leftovers. This year, I was bound and determined to do a full vegetable garden! All I needed to do was clear out that mess!

First Tackling The Yard


Since growing grass takes a few weeks to really get going, I started with the lawn. When I started raking the dead branches and pine cones, I realized half of our yard was covered in vines! I decided that tearing them out was my best solution. Come to find out, they cover half the yard and..... were such a pain! This step ended up taking me a few hours, and I wasn’t really sure about it, but you’ll see in the end it was totally worth it!

Prepping The Soil


Once I had the vines removed, I started raking the soil. You really just need to loosen the top of the soil, enough for the seeds to be covered about a ¼ of an inch. 

Spreading The Seeds


After the ground has been raked loose, spread the seeds in the empty patches of the lawn. You want a nice thick covering! Imagine each one is a little blade of grass growing.

Raking The Seeds In Place


Once the seeds are spread evenly, what you want to do is lightly rake them into the soil. A ¼ of an inch of soil is all that the seeds really need for cover. It’s almost like you want to massage the seeds into the soil with the rake. Such an easy way to get a beautiful and full lawn. I love this Pennsylvania seed mix I bought for around $18, it’s blue! It makes it a lot easier when trying to see where you’ve spread the seeds and where you haven’t. Now all we have to do is water and watch it grow! 

Next… The Deary Pumpkin Patch


Now that the lawn is prepped, time to tackle that garden bed! From the photos above, you know this wasn’t ready for any type of planting. The leftover vines from my “pumpkin patch” just weren’t cutting it. I also wanted to make it a little larger this year! I first started by digging out all the bricks and stones that edged the old bed. Since I’m doing this on a budget, I saved everything I dug out. My goal was to repurpose them into a new retaining wall for the garden. I’m so happy I did, because I love the way it turned out!

Starting Fresh


Once I had most of the bricks and stones dugout, I leveled the garden out. It was quite a bit of a slope before and I wanted it to feel more like a garden bed. What I didn’t realize was how much dirt I was going to have left over! Living in the city and having a small yard doesn’t leave much space to move things around. I thought, “why not make the garden wrap around?” So that’s what I did! I added the extra soil to the side, creating a new L shape to the bed. More room for planting vegetables!

Repurposing The Stones


I love the idea of repurposing things! I know that this may not be the ideal wall for some, but I love it. I love that this cost me $0 and it was a great way to use these big beautiful stones. It feels like they have been here for ages! They are soo heavy, all I had to do was set them and they stayed in place! Such an easy way to make a retaining wall for zero dollars!

Time To Fill It Up!


I didn’t have enough soil on hand for the whole bed, so I did end up going to the hardware store and buying filler soil to really build it up! I bought about 5 bags which cost me around $15.

Almost Time To Plant!


Once I had the filler soil down, I added another layer on top of that using top soil with fertilizer. This cost me around $15 as well. Free retaining wall and a little money spent on soil and I’m ready to plant!

The Results

I’m in LOVE. I am so happy I finally decided to tackle the yard and garden. Once I had the hard part done, all I had to do was add the plants! And of course a couple little solar lights for fun! I love the way the stones look and you can see I already have lettuce coming up! It’s going to be a great summer for vegetables! And a great summer for me now that I have the Worx Landroid! I can spend more time tending to the garden and less time mowing. It was so easy to set up, you simply install the base and line your yard with it’s perimeter wire and you are good to go! You can easily control it right from your phone. It’s so simple to set a schedule and let it handle the work! It even has a GPS feature to find it and it mows in random patterns to completely cover the layout of your lawn for a perfect cut!

A Mind Of Its Own


The Landroid had an edging feature which is awesome! Less time spent trimming! It can also sense when it’s about to hit something and redirects itself. Perfect for those new retaining walls! Rain? No worries, it knows. I was afraid of leaving it outside but it’s waterproof and also has a sensor that tells it not to mow if it’s wet out! It charges right from its station, so no worries about running out of gas anymore. What a game changer! Honestly, I’m so happy with how awesome it is! Now how do I get a robot gardener? 

A Piece of Paradise


The grass is growing in beautifully, the garden is full of plants… I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited for a summer! Between my fresh new lawn and all the vegetables (I hopefully get, fingers crossed), I feel like I’m ready this year! All that hard work is going to feel great when I’m sitting back, enjoying the sun, and watching the Landroid mow the lawn. Maybe I’ll even make a mojito with my new mint plant! I hope you enjoyed this low cost-repurposed backyard makeover!

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  • Robyn Garner Robyn Garner on May 30, 2020

    My previous home took me 2 days to mow. I would have loved to have a robo-mower. Or a gorgeous gardener lol! 😎


    Enjoy the fruits of your havest. Looks great.

  • Mary Coakley Mary Coakley on Jun 20, 2020

    All.your hard work has been repaid enjoy veggies and plants.well done

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