Backyard expansion

[elizilla]

Last Friday we signed the papers to buy the landlocked vacant lot behind our house. We have been hoping to buy it for years and it finally became available. It’s just a quarter acre, and with no street access it can’t be built on by anyone who isn’t a neighbor.

It has been neglected since long before we came here, so it is like a pocket wilderness right in the middle of town. We don’t plan to clear it, but Steve has now bushwhacked a path through it, and punched through to the alley behind. The alley dead ends back there and the last hundred feet are even more neglected, no one could drive through there. But when Steve pushed through, the back neighbors all came to meet him, so now we know people over there that we never met before.

Based on the topography, we had already guessed there is some fill back there. But Steve is learning more about the type of fill. I suspect we will be putting more in our trash can, every week.

This is how we became gun owners, yesterday. I don’t think it’s a serious gun, or in a repairable condition. But we will drop it off at the police station and let them deal with it.

Comments

Congratulations!

[ysabetwordsmith]

That is so exciting! :D

I recommend looking for native plants while surveying your new turf. They are prone to settle in abandoned places, and are valuable for wildlife.

Having a path through the area will certainly make it more accessible. Consider adding a bench. If your neighbors are interested too, maybe you could invite them to help make the space more usable, and enliven neighborhood connections more.

Re: Congratulations!

[elizilla]

While this land has been neglected for 50 or 70 years, it is a thoroughly disturbed piece of ground.

Our small town was founded about 200 years ago, and we are in the oldest neighborhood. The quarter acre our house is on, and the quarter acre behind us that we just bought, were originally considered one lot, in the original plat. We are a half block from Main, on A Street near where the grist mill was, and the houses across the backyard are on B Street. The downtown business district was already well established when the railroad arrived, and the train depot ended up on B Street, two blocks from Main. In 1871 the town leveled B Street to make it easier to travel between the train depot and the business district. The schoolhouse and several of the grander homes in town were on the B Street hill, and ended up overlooking B Street from atop retaining walls. We think they put that dirt in our backyard. Because if you were leveling a street with just horse drawn wagons and shovels, how far would you haul the dirt? And the backyards on either side of us look like they were once stream beds, but ours is level with the street.

Our county no longer does the old school title extracts that list all the ownership changes, so we don’t know when our lot was subdivided or why. But we speculate that it was done in 1871, as a way for the town to deal with the B Street leveling project.

We have been here nine years and have picked up a lot of trash back there, even before we owned the land. The ground heaves up bricks and car parts with each freeze thaw cycle. The trees are mainly black locust, buckthorn, norway maples, black walnut, and dead ash trees. Under the trees is mainly dames rocket, vinca, and sweet woodruff. There are grapevines and poison ivy vines tangled in the trees.

I am in favor of native species though I will admit I prefer Norway maples to black walnuts. But we mainly have a thicket of invasives back there.

Re: Congratulations!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>While this land has been neglected for 50 or 70 years, it is a thoroughly disturbed piece of ground.<<

It's the age of neglect that matters. Things will respawn in a vacant lot that won't in tended lawn or park -- things that would normally grow in a forest clearing or edge, or disturbed prairie. My favorite is the story of running buffalo clover, which used to grow after the herds passed, and nowadays is tended by ... periodically driving over it with a bulldozer!

>>Our small town was founded about 200 years ago, and we are in the oldest neighborhood. <<

That's cool.

>> We think they put that dirt in our backyard.<<

Definitely worth checking the empty lot for natives. The top few inches of soil are the active seed bank, and a foot or so below that is the static seed bank. Scrape it off dump it in a pile, and you never know what will sprout. Most will be weeds, but there's often more.

>> Our county no longer does the old school title extracts that list all the ownership changes,<<

Bummer.

>>We have been here nine years and have picked up a lot of trash back there, even before we owned the land. The ground heaves up bricks and car parts with each freeze thaw cycle.<<

*laugh* My parents' place is on the cliff where upland farm drops down to riverbottom. At some point, someone evidently pushed an entire house off that cliff. We found clothes, furniture, refrigerator, stove -- and yes, the kitchen sink.

>> The trees are mainly black locust,<<

Native in part but not all of the US, listed as invasive in some areas.

>> buckthorn, <<

Some species are native to North America, but the imported ones are invasive here. One of the world's best dye plants, as you can get nearly a whole rainbow from its different parts!

>>norway maples,<<

Introduced.

>> black walnut,<<

Native, an excellent wildlife plant, but admittedly hard on some other species.

>> and dead ash trees. <<

Excellent wildlife habitat in standing snags or fallen logs, the bigger the better. Check for safety, and if they're not in the way, it is beneficial to leave them.

>>Under the trees is mainly dames rocket, <<

Invasive in America, but can be confused with native phlox and other wildflowers.

>> vinca, <<

Introduced, occasionally invasive.

>> and sweet woodruff. <<

Introduced herb.

>> There are grapevines <<

America has multiple species of native grapevines. Could be escaped domestic grapes, but unlikely as they need coddling. Grape leaves and fruit are edible.

>>and poison ivy vines tangled in the trees.<<

A bandage plant. Large patches may be killed with fertilizer if you don't want to use herbicide, particularly hot manure topped with mulch to tamp down the smell.


>> I am in favor of native species though I will admit I prefer Norway maples to black walnuts.<<

Thin thoughtfully. You can always cut down more later, but it takes a lot longer to replace.

>>But we mainly have a thicket of invasives back there.<<

Huge batch of:

* harvestable craft materials
* harvestable firewood
* cuttable brush for wildlife shelters
* mulch
* compost

Biomass is useful. You just need to think about what you want the place to look like eventually, and how to get from here to there.

You might ask around your neighbors to see what people's hobbies are. No point wasting the materials if you've got a dyer, a basketweaver, and a woodcarver on the block.