Mr. Green Jeans

Okay, maybe not Mr. Green Jeans....we have undertaken some gardening and lawn beautification projects this year. We've been meaning to add a bed along the front of our house for some time and now that we're officially staying here for the foreseeable future, this was the year to do it. I spent some time mapping it out on graph paper and choosing and ordering plants. I okayed it with the boss and then we got rid of (er...LET the kids have a visit with Steve's parents) for a weekend and set about removing the sod from the new bed area. Let me just say that I thought it was a lot of work to get grass to GROW on our lawn - well, removing it was 10 times worse!! Luckily for me, I only had to actually remove the sod a couple of times while Steve was running a load of "waste" to the local mulch/soil supply yard. I did get the job of loosening all of the soil, though - and that was no fun task, either. It was fun, though, to have muscles aching from use and know that I'd done an honest day's work!

We were very blessed during the weekend - first by some friends who graciously loaned us their trailer which allowed us to haul our topsoil and mulch ourselves -saving us a couple hundred dollars in delivery costs, and then by a neighbor who mentioned that they'd gotten mulch pricing from a local place that was very similar to the price we'd gotten from a place 20 miles away and finally by the the owners of the local mulch place who very very graciously allowed us to dump our sod in their dirt pile when we learned that the village recycling center (which does normally accept yard waste) didn't want it. When we went back 2 weeks later to get the field stone for the border, we saw an old stump sitting up on a wall and inquired as to whether or not they'd sell it to us. We have an old piece of driftwood in our other bed (not in the picture) and thought the stump would make a nice complement. To our surprise, they called to let us know we could have it! They got a batch of cookies for the sod and a batch of brownies for the stump. I think everyone ended up happy!! Unfortunately, I think we'll have to wait til next year for a "finished" picture since most of the plants I ordered are just babies and will need a year or so to reach their full glory, but I'm very pleased to say that thus far I think almost everything I planted is either growing strong or has emerged (I put in a lot of lily bulbs). It was a really fun project all in all and I'm really excited to see everything start to come up and even more excited for next year when I can figure out where we have gaps and fill them in with new and interesting plants!