The Beginning (Spring 2005)

As I am really starting out this effort in cataloging my acitivities relating to the City of Calgary Healthy Yards Program, I figure I should give you a bit of background to show you the yardly efforts leading to this point.

We moved back to Calgary in 2004, and bought a year old house in a new development. On the surface, it looked like the yard was in quite good shape, although it needed some work. However, a combination of a very windy micro-climate, very little top soil, and poor quality sod placed on top of hard packed glacial till made it rough going.

To exacerbate the situation, the existing fire pit didn't mesh well with small children, and I ruined any semblance of a smooth lawn surface my bringing a bobcat onto the lawn in June of 2005 during the rainy season.

These were some of the early challenges that I was to overcome...