Lavishing Landscaping...

Ahhhh... Sometimes I make myself laugh, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. It's only when I'm the only one who finds it funny when it gets bad... This might be one of those moments.  Because when I type "lavishing landscaping" you are probably convinced that I'm going to post some magnificent pictures of some completely awe-inspiring landscape project aren't you?  Well, keep in mind, I have NEVER started from scratch with landscaping like this.  Even my beautiful custom built home in Prairie Grove, AR, had the dirt foundations laid out by our incredibly wonderful builder.  Here?  Not so much.  Enjoy the post.

Here is what I had to start with.  Unbeknownst to us, the builder's brother owns the landscaping/hydro seeding company.  The dude literally pushed a little dirt up against the house.  That is what he left me to work with.  Give me a break!  So needless to say, I spread the worthless dirt (they didn't even bring in any new dirt, or pull out all the billions of rocks they had dumped in our yard prior to building the house) pulled as much rock out as possible and did what I could...

Here I have painstakingly tied string and "mapped" out my tentative plan for the landscape project.  I had to use nails to keep the string down. NO, maybe it was screws. Oh well, it was a box of something I found rummaging through the "stuff" Ricky leaves out on the shelf.  Notice how the dirt is getting loosened up?  I had the biggest blister on my hand.  Ricky asks, "Did you wear your gloves?"  Really?  Wouldn't that be too smart of me to do?  Of course I didn't!  Why do anything half hearted?  This was Friday and a truckload of dirt would be delivered Saturday.  I had a time limit and gloves were not on the forefront of my list!!

I wish I had gotten a picture of all my neighbors who came over to help us move all this dirt over.  They were awesome.  They even helped bring it out more and make sure it was completely leveled. This is the city of friendly people for sure...

My first tree/plant purchase.  It's a Rose of Sharon tree!  How awesome is that?  Rose of Sharon is a Mary tree!  I can't wait to see it bloom!

Ricky and I decided to go with the stones, even though we were both nervous about setting it out and getting it to "look" right.  I think between the two of us, it came out pretty good!  Score one for the Blairs!!

I came up with the third level looping into the dirt to "blend" it into the middle.  Ricky got the tree into the ground and it looks pretty impressive landscape project.  Yea, the next step is too fill in the rest, I know.   Just enjoy what you see for now!

A close up of the Rose of Sharon tree!

My pot of flowers on the front porch. So far, so good, no deer!!!