Since the house we bought was one that had gone into foreclosure, the yard had sat for months without any real work being done to it. A company seemed to mow the lawn, but they did as little as possible to get the job done. We went through and trimmed back lots of the bushes to make the yard seem larger. At the same time we wanted to clean out all of the weeds and small trees that had taken over the area by the side of the house. It took a few days shoveling and raking everything out of there, but it ended up looking fairly good.

A few small trees had to be cut down and some larger roots dug up from around the foundation.  We noticed a lot of pieces of broken concrete, some larger pieces near the front yard, which we figure must have been a cement staircase in a past life.  All of the broken chunks were taken and put behind the garage to get them out of the way for now.

All of the brush from the side of the house, along with the trimmings from the front and side bushes, were piled up in the back of the house in the dirt and taking over the patio.  We picked up a bunch of yard waste bags from a local hardware store and started filling them.  We ended up with a pile of 9 bags sitting, waiting for pickup.  That didn’t even start to dent our pile of yard waste.  Most of the waste is gone finally and we hope to keep it to a minimum by keeping up with the yard.  Hopefully…

Partway through removing the weeds

Lots of weeds and some small trees growing by the side of the house

Cement chunks left from possibly old destroyed front stairs

The pile of brush that took over the patio area

Our pile of yard waste bags waiting for pickup

The side of the house cleared of all the weeds and trees