Settling into a new home

Moving into a brand new home on an acre of vacant land that hasn’t so much as a weed growing on it would be fun, I thought. All too often, moving to a “new” place means getting stuck with somebody else’s idea of landscaping. Not so the home my son Doug and I purchased about nine years ago.

I remember back in the 1970s when my husband Van and I moved into our first home in Fresno. The previous owner was an older lady who, when given a plant or tree for her yard, simply dug a hole and put whatever it was right there. That front yard was an absolute forest and we had to hire someone to come in and clear it all away.

This came to mind when I looked out of our new Fallon home’s front “lawn” and saw all of the possibilities. Of course, lucky me, I wasn’t the one who was going to have to fill in all that empty space, but then I wasn’t “young” like my then 60-year-old son.

When we purchased the property we had the builder add a six-foot fence all around the back yard.

We had the garage built so that we could enter from the side of the building. It’s proven to be a great arrangement. Then Doug and some friends poured concrete walks along the front, side and the back for better access. When that was done Doug gave me that “now what do we do” look. But he has always been good at landscaping so I deferred to his expertise.

Doug put split rail fence around the front with railroad ties below, then field fencing around the entire back area. He then placed over a 1,200 feet of sprinkler pipe, planted trees, bushes and decided where to have lawn and where to put rock. Of course we made the usual mistakes, fixed things differently a couple of times, but after two years the property began to take shape.

During this time we had our two Yorkies Benjie and Charlie. Doug bought enough sod to put in a really nice area of lawn in the back yard. The grass came with some kind of plastic net backing – something they thankfully don’t do anymore – and for the first couple of years the lawn was beautiful. Now it is cursed with dead areas he has to fight with to get grass seed to grow.

We’d love to see that lawn replaced; but have you checked the price of sod these days? Like everything else, the prices are through the roof. Maybe we’ll do it next year, if I can get Doug motivated? The second year Doug planted ten trees along the windy side of the property since we live at the top of a hill with a lot of open area to the west.

Those ten trees looked like skinny kids that first year, but now we have a wonderful and beautiful wind break area that I just love, and both the front and back yards are blooming with beautiful trees and plants. Regarding that Fresno property, after Van and I got our front yard cleared, we began designing and planting. Our next-door neighbors had just sold an acre elsewhere in town.

They told us that if we wanted to take any of the trees off that property to help ourselves. I found an olive tree and being a novice I had bare-rooted the poor thing. However, my sweet hubby planted the half dead thing anyway. Everybody laughed at me, especially John G. the rancher who owned a huge ranch behind our property. One day John saw me standing beside that tree and stopped.

Sarcastically he said, “That thing won’t ever grow Edna, you may as well pull it out.” I emphatically assured him that it would, because I sang to it every day. He laughed all the way back to his car. This episode went on for a couple of weeks with John stopping and smiling at me and driving on shaking his head. Then one day my son Don, who was visiting, called me outside.

He pointed excitedly to my little olive tree. It was covered with new tiny green buds on all of its branches. I could hardly wait for John G. to stop by again. When he did I reminded him of something. “Love makes things grow, John.” He nodded agreement and then gave me a hug.

Edna Van Leuven is a Churchill County writer and columnist. She may be reached at news@lahontanvalleynews.com