{"id":2060,"date":"2011-03-21T07:28:44","date_gmt":"2011-03-21T14:28:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2060"},"modified":"2025-11-02T21:10:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T04:10:57","slug":"yard-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=2060","title":{"rendered":"Yard Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normally a post about yard work wouldn’t end up in Narcissist Secrets but it was the way I did it that made me realize it belonged here.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I’d been wanting to “fix” my back yard for a while.\u00a0 Patchy long grass of a type that really didn’t seem to survive the spot; weeds, weeds & weeds and mud!\u00a0 lol\u00a0 It seems that the simple things I’ve done worked far better than the long, back-breaking things I’ve tried. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

What have I tried?\u00a0 I’ve tried planting Zoyza grass in the patchy parts.\u00a0 I once had it completely tilled and sod laid down (of course, the wrong type.. thanks Bro!)\u00a0 And I’ve tried letting my raised-in-WI-Farm-Country-Should-Know-About-Growing-Things then husband try seeding it.\u00a0 (OMG.. THAT’s a whole different post!)\u00a0 And I’ve just thrown down some left over Weed N Seed I found in the garage from the previous owner.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Guess what actually had easy results?\u00a0 Right, the Weed N Feed.\u00a0 And I realized if your average gardener can keep a lawn healthy, so could I!\u00a0 So with my oldest and youngest in tow I headed out to Home Depot.\u00a0 We picked up some needed household replacement fixtures and headed to the garden section.\u00a0 (With a little detour in the paint swatch section… gonna paint the living room, might get some ideas while I’m here.)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I still had Weed N Feed, but I needed grass seed.\u00a0 And lucky for me, there was an employee working RIGHT in that section!\u00a0 So I told her I wanted the thick grass, not the thin stuff.\u00a0 And she grinned at me and said, “Bermuda” and handed me a bag.\u00a0 Which was way more than I needed, so we got two tiny bags, because I’d planned on “overseeding”. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Then this lovely woman called over a colleague who knew more and he informed me my plan was sound.\u00a0 Weed N Feed, then seed, then cover with manure.\u00a0 Except he said for my purposed I’d better use Topsoil.\u00a0 Unfortunately for me I had no idea the square footage I had, so we guessed.\u00a0 And from my guess and the calculations on the bag for my purposes I’d need like 18 bags of Topsoil!\u00a0 Ha!\u00a0 No.\u00a0 I told him I’d take 6 and if I needed more I’d come back. Only so much will fit in my car!
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

We hauled it home and I proceeded to marshal my workers to help.\u00a0 Now here is where the Narcissists Secret comes in.\u00a0 When you use your children as child labor they aren’t exactly “adult level” workers.\u00a0 They need exact instructions, supervision and constant reminders to come back for more tasks after they’ve been given a task. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the time if really feels as if I could do all the work faster and more efficiently alone.\u00a0 And I have to fight my impulse to freak out when they aren’t doing it “right”.\u00a0 (Yes, the OCD quirks to their Asperger’s come from me, lol.)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But kids will learn best with hands on interaction.\u00a0 So I give them small versions of what I’m doing.\u00a0 And I go over a lot of their work at my speed so it still gets done to my satisfaction.\u00a0 They can’t stand the sound of the weed wacker, so I give them other chores while I get the grass down to its lowest level. \u00a0 Then have them help with the Weed N Feed, the Bermuda Seed and the topsoil. <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It takes a long time.\u00a0 Or so it seems to them, but they like spreading the seed and complain a lot over the topsoil! <\/strong><\/span>All by hand because I don’t own anything like a “spreader” that others probably use for this!\u00a0 lol<\/strong> And between the three of us, not only do we get it all done just in time of a perfect week of rain, sunny day, rain, sunny day, rain forecast.\u00a0 But I’ve got 3 bags left of topsoil and at least a half bag left of seed!
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hmmmmmm.\u00a0\u00a0 On to the front yard! <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

O.K….\u00a0 maybe next week.\u00a0 I’m exhausted!
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Normally a post about yard work wouldn’t end up in Narcissist Secrets but it was the way I did it that made me realize it belonged here. I’d been wanting to “fix” my back yard for a while.\u00a0 Patchy long … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-narcissist-secrets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2060"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4524,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2060\/revisions\/4524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}