I think I hate sand!!

I used to love sand. I would look forward to the time when we would go to my grandparents house in California, because it always meant a trip to the ocean and the wonderful sand. Sigh.... I used to love to dip my toes in the dry, warm sand, and make footprints in the wet sand. I loved to grab a handful of sand and let it fall from my fingers. It was wonderful!! Then we moved here.

Our whole yard is sand. No soil, just sand. Under the grass, under the flowers, in the garden. It's everywhere. I was excited at first, cause I loved sand. We took out an old pond the previous owners had in the corner. It was full of junk, and we were excited to see sand underneath - instant sandbox for the kids. But now - I have sand everywhere. It comes in shoes, clothes, hair, and Parker's diaper. Yuck!! It is in the carpets, on the counters, everywhere.

The other bad part is the landscaping of our house. There are several places where we have river rock in flower beds and other places. The sand blows in, fills up between the rocks, and then the weeds can grow in the river rock. There is one bad place on the north side of our house where the whole part is almost completely covered in sand, and it was so bad in a 6 foot section that there was probably 2-3 inches of sand on top of the rocks, completely hiding the rocks and allowing a full lawn to be grown on top.


I was inspired by a friend to finally tackle this spot and get it cleaned up this past weekend. So I started digging out. My goal was to take out all of the rock and the weed fabric so that I can have at least one place each year to play with planting flowers. What a chore!!

First, it seemed that I disturbed a colony of ants that lived below the weed fabric under the rocks. As I lifted rocks, I disturbed their eggs, and they were not happy. Several ant bites later, I had to quit until they quieted down because I was getting bitten so much. Little buggers are mean for being so tiny! They kept biting me right where my gloves ended. All those little red marks in the pictures - ant bites. Ouch!!

It has taken me three days, working on an off, to get to the last 4 foot section. It rained today, so I'm taking a break to let it dry out. But I did start planting flowers in the part that I got cleaned up Monday. I am so excited to get to plant flowers again and make something look prettier. Hopefully when I finish that last section, I will put in a tomato plant or two (my garden space is already filled and I need a bit more room). One more day, and I'll be done. Yay!!