By Gretchen Leigh
Last week I cleaned out the far corner of my backyard. My husband had thrown some old roofing out there in an attempt to kill the Japanese Knotweed. It’s a noxious weed that creeps in under the guise of bamboo.
In the olden days, before my husband and I had kids, that back corner was our yard waste receptacle. It was beautifully turned and processed into compost by our first child, a rescue lab named Sadie. I’m not sure why she dug only in that area, but the dirt was lush and rich from all her work. People came from all around to use the soil in that corner; it was so wonderful. Not really, just the next door neighbor. Anyway, after she passed away (the dog, not the neighbor) we discovered our other neighbor, whose lot backs up to ours, planted Japanese Knotweed years before because his kids saw it in a gravel pit and thought it was pretty. Sadie deterred the knotweed from propagating in our yard for many years. We were unaware of the beast that lurked under the ground just waiting for its chance to spread into our yard. A couple years after the dog died, the knotweed took over and we’ve been fighting it ever since.
So last week, I decided it was time to make that corner into something beautiful. I’m tired of looking at a junk heap when I sit on the patio or look out my bedroom window. I cleared the debris, sent my husband to the dump, then excavated. I’m not sure I meant to excavate, but once I started chasing the web of roots from the Japanese Knotweed, I ended up digging the area down about a foot. The dirt I took out was still beautiful and rich from all those years our dog turned it. I set it aside. Then I garnered small rocks from our next door neighbor for a base drainage. Then, in spite of my husband’s protests that we didn’t need it, I bought and spread some coarse sand as the next layer for drainage. I returned all the dirt I’d removed. However, I’m making a rock garden and the dirt isn’t high enough to suit the vision I have in my head. I think I want to buy another yard of soil, but my husband doesn’t want me to get that much.
Though he’s been right several times this week; once about bringing dirt in to level our yard rather than digging it up and also about only getting one yard of soil at a time so it wasn’t overwhelming, I have a vision. And that vision is a lot taller than it is now.
As I was returning the dirt I’d excavated, I wanted my husband to go to the dirt company and get some primo garden soil so I could get up early Sunday and put it in before it got hot. My mind said “YES!” I’m going to finish the foundation before the week starts. My back said “#&*@!” My husband said, “You should wait. You’re going to be really tired after working hard for two days in a row.”
I was pretty whupped by the time I was done returning the soil Saturday evening, so I was glad I didn’t have a truck load of dirt waiting for me to unload Sunday morning. My husband was right again. That’s three times in a week. And though I’m sure I didn’t kill the Japanese Knotweed for good, because it’s a noxious, obnoxious weed, maybe I gave it something to think about.
Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. You can read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com or on Facebook at “Living with Gleigh,” or twitter @livewithgleigh. Her column is available every week atmaplevalleyreporter.com under the Lifestyles section.
