hmm... Not very inviting at all... In fact, it's quite the opposite... I mean yes, it definitely could have been worse, but I think the only redeeming quality was the flowers and shrubbery on the sides... Because this walkway looks like we took a 2 year vacation and just threw our hands up in defeat... So I figured since it was Earth Day, and a nice but not too hot day, and I was feeling up for a little manual labor, I should attack this thing and make it look presentable!
First on the agenda was getting that brush pile out of the way, I think that was plants that my mother in law to be had pruned back before winter (or whatever it is you do to plants to preserve them over winter) In any case, now they are a just dead, droopy mess, not to mention a nesting ground for who knows what... And then I set to work on the fun part, pulling up all those weeds!
I think a better term might be 'mini-trees', these things had root systems just as tall as the weeds themselves! So the work on that went a bit slower than what I expected... And I also had to deal with a very much unwanted surprise, there was a welcome mat sitting on the path and when I went to remove it I discovered an ant colony almost as big as the mat. I grew in Mississippi, and even though these ants didn't look like fireants, to me any ant is a fireant... And if you've ever been bitten by one, you'd agree! Those things burn! But I didn't want to have to delay the de-weeding, so I sprayed (soaked) the entire colony with some ant/roach spray I happened to have =P Then the work could continue!
I also had a rake handy, so I was able to really clean away all the debris and leaves. While I was doing this I realized that the reason so many weeds had grown up was the lack of gravel over the walkway, but at least this was a fabulous start! I figured there was probably some extra gravel from making the driveway and walkway, it would just be a matter of finding it... And until then, this wasn't all that bad of a look =)
You can see where the ant hill was here at the end of the steps, even with me raking the gravel the dirt is still quite dark and bare where the ants were living...
Luckily for me, there was still a ton (quite literally...) of gravel left over, and in a massive pile only a bit away off the end of the driveway! Now all I had to do was get it from point A to B... And our wheelbarrow has a permanent flat tire... So needless to say, it wasn't all that easy of a task, and since I'm not all that strong, I couldn't pile the wheelbarrow full like my muscle man can... He helped out with the first load, but it was getting dark so we called it a day and I finished up the next day with 2 more loads of gravel.
And with the extra gravel, I was able to get rid of most of the remaining traces of the ant hill! I think the dog likes the new walkway too, now I go play with him much more because I'm not depressed to look out the front door and see all those weeds!
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