What’s Inside?
He followed the strange hissing noise around his house. He had never heard anything like it before. It led him to his backyard. James froze.
He ran to the shed and grabbed a garden tool with a long sharp edge. He poked the mysterious patch of grass and watched in terror as it moved. When he discovered what was hiding inside, he stood in shock.
James
James Carlington and his wife, Sarah were coming back from church on Sunday morning when James noticed something strange in his yard.
As a businessman with a loving wife to keep him company and his hobby for gardening to keep him busy, James loved nothing more than to kick back in his garden on the weekends. Even if that garden was hiding something horrific...
Just Another Sunday
It was another beautiful morning in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. The air was fresh, the sun was shining and the wind was calm and gentle after a long night of stormy weather.
James was exhausted. He hardly got any sleep under the constant pelting of rain and howling wind. Regardless, he got himself up and ready for another relaxed Sunday. Little did he know, his day would be anything but relaxed.
To-Do List
James and his wife ate breakfast and left to catch their weekly 10 am church service before coming back to the house to garden and do miscellaneous chores around the house.
On the drive back from church, James began to make a list in his head about what needed to be done in the garden. With two kids all grown up and gone, he now devoted all his care and attention to his modest yard.
Strange Noise
The couple arrived back home and walked from the car to their front door. But just before James turned the handle, he heard something.
“Do you hear that?”, James asked Sarah, bewildered. “Yeh, what is that?”, she replied. It was a hissing noise and unlike anything they’ve heard before. James steps away from the door and follows the eerie sound.
Louder And Louder
It led him around his house to his backyard. As he turned the corner, the noise got louder and louder. Suddenly, James froze. “What the..”, he muttered.
In front of him was a big patch of grass that seemed to be rising. He dug his heels into the ground in complete confusion before inching closer to the bizarre scene.
It Moved
James tapped the strange thing with his foot and watched horrified as the patch of risen earth moved beneath his foot. He jumped back in panic. His wife followed suit and they both stared curiously at it.
Once it stopped moving, James tentatively kicked it again. It wobbled once more before coming to a stand still. Then he did something he probably shouldn’t have.
Not All Fun And Games
“What the hell?”, he said. “It's like a bubble or waterbed!”. Feeling emboldened, he took off his sandals and walked on it. The weird mass moved under his feet like a giant slab of jelly.
James got so carried away with the fun sensation that he started to jump on it. But on his third jump, he heard an awful, unhinged sound. He froze.
Setting Up The Camera
A loud pop filled the air and the mass beneath his feet got bigger. James quickly got down, realizing that he had no idea what he was standing on. He hoped that sound wasn’t anything serious. But it was.
James asked his wife to get out her phone and start filming. He was going to burst this thing. But he never expected what they’d capture.
Popping The Bubble
Sarah got out her camera while James got an umbrella from the side of the house. He started to prod the mysterious lump. But nothing happened. He needed something stronger.
He sourced a garden tool and resumed poking it. “What if snakes come out? '', his wife joked. What hid inside however, was much more frightening than snakes.
A Big Whoosh!
He stood on top of the mysterious mass again and started to pierce the grass harder. The hissing sound began to fade and fade until suddenly, there was another loud pop.
James steadied himself as the grass churned and he felt a big ‘whoosh’ beneath his feet. His eyes opened wide as he watched what happened next.
Moment Of Truth
James finally managed to pierce through the grass and burst the giant bubble. James and Sarah watched in amazement as murky water came gushing out. It continued to run from the ground like an endless water fountain.
But the entrancing earth fountain wasn’t all this bubble would reveal to them.
Strange Plastic
After fifteen minutes of watching his yard expel water from its underbelly, James began to notice something strange.
On the opening hole, a black piece of plastic stuck out from beneath the grass. James approached the hole and grabbed the piece of plastic. He tried to pull it out but it wouldn’t budge. It looked like the edge of a black trash bag.
Flooded
“What is that?”, he wondered. He waited until all of the water drained from the strange bubble to find out.
He looked around at his garden which was now flooded. A small river flowed from his yard to the street. But the mess was the least of his problems.
The First Dig
James went into his garage and brought out a shovel. If this plastic bag was the cause of this strange phenomenon, he needed to remove it.
He dug into his beloved grass one shovel at a time until he reached the culprit. He reached his hand in and tried to pull it out again. But even though the plastic bag looked like it had been there for years, it was still as tough as nails.
No End
Confused, James realized that the plastic bag was much bigger than he thought. He continued to dig, hoping to find its end. He followed the plastic bag with his shovel until he stood at the end of his grass.
James had no idea what was going on. He walked over to the other far end of his yard and started to dig.
Getting Closer
It was as he expected. The black plastic lay under his entire grass like a giant sheet. But why?
James walked back to the other side where he had dug a line from the center of his garden to the edge. He took out his pocket knife and pierced a line in the plastic sheet. What he found was staggering.
Wooden Planks
Desperate to understand what was hiding beneath his very own garden, he pulled the plastic sheet back. A strange smell began to woft through the air.
His eyebrows knitted at the site of the old and dirty wooden planks that came into view. James didn’t remember seeing anything like this outlined in the blueprint of his house when he bought it 50 years ago. Things were about to get stranger and stranger.
In Shock
James called for his wife who had given up filming some time ago. Preferring instead to begin some house chores. She walked to James’ side, astonished at what he did to their garden.
There was mud and holes everywhere but just as she was about to give out to him, she saw what he was staring at. She grew silent, scrunching her nose at the smell. “What is all this James?”, she asked.
A Secret Door
“I have no idea”, he replied. “It looks like some sort of structure”. “We weren’t told about any of this when we bought the house, right?”, he asked.
“Honey”, Sarah interrupted. “That looks like a door handle”. Alarmed, James turned. “Oh my word. It does”, he agreed. His heart started to pound. It was becoming obvious that his garden was anything but ordinary.
More Digging
James grabbed his shovel and started around the area. Then he grabbed his knife and ripped back more of the strange plastic covering.
His wife stood close by as he tried to prise open the bizarre door. His mind raced with theories as he used all of his strength to open it. Was it a bunker? Some kind of ancient ruin? He started to sweat with anticipation.
A Fallen Stairs
When the door finally gave way, James couldn’t believe his eyes. It opened up to wooden stairs that had fallen apart.
James’ heart thumped as chills ran down his body. He grabbed his flashlight and asked his wife to hold his ankles. He lay down and dropped the front half of his body down.
Old Wine Cellar
It looked like it was an old small wine cellar. There were still some empty bottles lying around. The place looked completely abandoned. And it smelled like sour milk or fermented fruit.
It was obvious that no one had entered this place in a very very long time. It was definitely the source of the strange smell. When James managed to grab a bottle, the date left him speechless.
Illegal Build
It was dated in the early 20th century. After a painful search for his house's history, he discovered that the wine cellar had to be closed up because it was built without planning permission.
But what about the giant bubble and plastic?
Explanations
As James and Sarah later found out, the plastic sheet was the easiest way to recover the yard’s appearance and reintroduce fertile soil without having to write a pricey check to demolish the structure and buy soil from scratch.
They learnt that the mysterious grass bubble was a phenomenon known as a ‘lawn blister’.
Lawn Blister
A lawn blister happens most commonly in lawns that have a plastic sheet underneath the grass surface. This plastic sheet is used in lawns that have bad soil in order to encourage healthy grass to grow.
The plastic is placed over the bad soil and new fresh soil is placed on top where grass will then grow and flourish. But here’s how the strange occurrence happens...
The Cause
Although rare, water can sometimes find its way under the plastic layer and get trapped. The water will continue to build with nowhere to go causing the grass to grow and rise with the mounting pressure.
In James’ case, the night of thunderous rainfall did the trick. Luckily, there was no burst pipe, but did James put himself in danger bursting it?
Treat With Caution
Although they may look threatening, they aren’t dangerous but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be careful.
Depending on the size of these lawn blisters, they can end up flooding your lawn. So make sure to pave a path for the water to drain to avoid ruining your yard with excessive water. And even though James dealt with the situation well, not everybody agreed...