Yard Trash

The past couple of weekends we've spent out in the backyard cleaning up the trash thrown over the fence or left behind by people who probably enter the yard for nights of drinking and carousing. Who knows what went on in that place before we bought it!?  Even the deer were winking!

We took out about 10 large trash bags full of all sorts of junk: beer cans, red bull cans, bottles, cigarette packs, softballs, handballs, nerf balls, soccer balls, footballs, fabric remnants, candy wrappers, and a wheel with tire - not to mention a couple engine blocks that were too heavy to move.

Another thing that was too heavy to move was the the old roofing material dumped onto the property when the roof was resurfaced, probably about 5-10 years ago.  The whole roof was back there!  We weren't able to see it before because moss had grown on top of it.  The problem with this stuff was that it creates an impenetrable barrier on top of the ground, preventing the growth of stabilizing shrubs.  Here's a picture after we removed some of the scrub covering the roofing material.

As told by one of the neighbors, around three years ago a huge rainstorm hit and the runoff, instead of being absorbed into the soil, ran down on top of this material, undermining and washing away several of the largest trees on the property.  We're now planning to remove this old roofing material, install retaining walls, and restore the plantings.