The Battle for the Backyard
When we purchased our Roswell home last spring, we moved into a beautifully re-done house built in 1955. The yard, however, looked every bit like a construction site. Odd pieces of construction debris lying around - or lying in wait for us to dig a hole to plant something. Hard pan ground that laughed at us when we tried digging it up...alternating with sections of pea gravel as deep as 6 inches. Crab grass moving in from under the fence. After a while we discovered there was more to the yard than we thought. Springing out of this seemingly lifeless dirt were scores of baby elm and locust trees, springing up from the roots of trees, most of which were long dead. So, we began a program to remove roots from our yard. I think the roots were laughing right along with the hard ground. Earlier this week I decided to dig up a root that had been sending up little ones on the side of the house. I uncovered the offending root rather quickly. However, just as quickly I discovered t