A Decade in This Soil

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It occurred to me when I woke up this morning that this week marks an anniversary of sorts. It was ten years ago that I first held the soil of my garden in my hands and stuck the first spade in the ground to start the transformation of this suburban former cornfield.

To her credit, the former owner of the property had given the landscape a decent start, ripping out sod and creating initial borders -- one along the back edge of the property and a foundation border in the front. She was a bird watcher, so there was a preponderance of native wildflowers to provide a food source for the birds, along with a few shrubs and trees tucked in between. She most certainly didn't subscribe to the cookie-cutter, squared off landscapes that are so common in suburbia.

But I knew as soon as we moved in that I needed to start changing the landscape in attempt to make it a grander, more diverse sanctuary that provided both beauty and privacy in the land of 80 by 120 foot lots.

Today, 10 years later, I thought it would be interesting to dig through some old photos and do a before an after comparison to see how much of a stamp I've put on my little patch of suburban earth.