Oh my goodness. Sounds like a lot of work. Here I am, trying my darnest to get rid of grass, and you want to have it.

The railroad ties are awful. I know. I have removed a BUNCH. Then we used an axe, cut them down and put them a piece at the time in the garbage. What a bunch of hard work that was.

When I moved in to my current house there was nothing but bermuda grass in the area between the house and the fence.

Look at what I did.

I am not showing the corner where the rail road ties were yet. It needs more work. :)

Moni

Here is a link that might be useful: Moni's yard

Moni, that is AWESOME!! You have done a lot of work in a short time. Is that a castor bean?

sgrizzle, that monkey grass is awful stuff. We had it once, and it was in a fight to the death with some hollies that were beautiful but in the wrong place. We paid a kid to dig it out, and it kept coming back but it was more controllable after we got the thick mat of it out.

Yes, Barton it is a castor bean. It sure spurted up a lot of growth after I cut the seeds out the first as well as the second time. Now, I think I will let a few ripen, for new seeds for next year.

Moni

I do hope you're careful when you're doing that, Moni! I have these in my yard, too, but I'm very cautious in handling them.

Susan

Moni, if you have a couple extra castor bean seeds I'd like a couple next spring!

Barton, I think I have a few castor beans I got in a seed swap you can have. I have a youngster so have never felt comfortable about planting them. I'll dig around and see if I still have them in my seed boxes.
Moni, the place looks great. wish I had started a photo journal on my place.
Grizzle, no kidding, I would consider hiring a backhoe. We bought an older place this spring we're doing a major remodel on. It had one of those old driveways that's two strips of concrete and the sidewalk went to the street which we wanted to go to the driveway. It would have taken days and an aching back to get that stuff out. We hired it done, paid a backhoe guy and a dump truck to haul it off. I think it was about $250 total, but it would have taken us days to smash all that loose and then what to do with it afterward.

sgrizzle, monkey grass responds well to a shovel, and altho that does get rather tedious, that's about the only solution. When we moved here, we found much what you want, which is a plain yard, a couple of trees ... and a patch of yucca. It finally succumbed to a healthy dose of Roundup. Don't be afraid to use it. It's one of the more environmental-friendly herbicides, because it doesn't stick around in the soil very long after it does its work. Just use those common-sense precautions our parents taught us.

The bones of your place sound fabulous, and a little hard work might give you just what you're looking for. Good luck!
Carol