Some grass grows in Atlanta

The courtyard behind our house has lots of potential. In order for this potential to be achieved, the weeds needed to be gone. We've lived in this house for nearly two years and I don't remember there ever being grass in this area. It did have large clumps of some kind of special grass and an overabundance of weeds, but no real grass. The lack of grass didn't stop me from mowing it. Mowed weeds look better than non-mowed weeds.

When it was time to start mowing this spring, Justin asked me nicely not to mow the courtyard. I demanded to know why. He explained that he wanted to kill the weeds and that by mowing them, we would never get rid of them. I reluctantly agreed. It nearly killed me having to walk by that mess while pushing the mower and not being able to do anything about it. Nearly killed me.

A couple of weekends ago, Justin started tilling the weedy areas of the courtyard and got rid of all of the visible weeds. I bagged the trash while he raked and we were finished in a few hours. We purchased some topsoil from Lowe's and spread it around the freshly weeded and tilled area. Justin then spread some grass seeds and watered them. The Honda saved the day again. We used her to haul 300 pounds of dirt. Three hundred pounds of dirt fit in the trunk of the Honda. We would have liked to put down sod, but compared to seeds, sod is expensive.

The weather was less than ideal this past weekend. We wanted to work in the courtyard again, but the rain was terrible. Sunday, we checked on the seeds to see if any made it through the downpour. They all seemed to be ok, but still no grass.

Monday was a completely different story.
You can see the big clumps of existing grass (Kentucky Bluegrass) in the upper part of the photo above.


It may need to be mowed this weekend. Probably not, but it's a good thought. The stones were in the courtyard when we moved in. They were slowly being covered by weeds and sediment. We removed them from their "beds" and added new dirt beneath them so they'll actually be useful as stepping stones. There is also a concrete brick paver pad at the corner of the courtyard. I think it could be nice as a sitting area with some chairs and an umbrella. It might also be nice to house the grill.


I've mentioned before that we live a couple of miles from PDK (Dekalb-Peachtree Airport). This is not generally a problem. Every now and then, a plane will take off and make a lot of noise. These are usually propeller planes. Lots of private jets use PDK and these actually make very little noise compared to the planes. Justin and I are like kids sometimes when jets fly overhead. When we're out in the yard working, we'll drop what we're doing and run to an opening in the trees to watch jets fly overhead. When I was mowing recently, I know I saw a military jet either landing or taking off from PDK. It was very loud, but that kind of noise is very rare. I think our neighbor's house is in line with the long runway because the jets and larger planes seem to fly directly over their house when landing. Sundays seem to be a super busy day at the airport. Lots of landings and take-offs.


This jet was taking off. The jets usually take off toward our house and curve over our other neighbor's house. When we drive by the airport, we'll sometimes see the big jets parked by the fence and we'll drool over the really big ones. Size does matter.