Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Michael's Birthday, My Dream!

BEFORE the DREAM

Since we have moved into this house almost 7 years ago I have dreamt of doing some great garden designs and landscaping projects that would take years to complete. I have even gone as far as taking up my trusty 3'x2' graft tablet and drafters ruler to draw up these designs so I could show Michael how beautiful this place could be, but my dreams are SOOOO much bigger than my wallet!! One of my big dreams is to get some kind of pathway from the front entrance to the side gate. There are some drainage issues we have had to look into because of where the "natural" path to and from the two doors are and it is exactly where the rain drains away from the house and pretty much half the yard. If you know how much rain we get here you know how IMPORTANT it is to keep this drainage as is. So we have gone back and forth about ideas and what I want, what he wants and all that stuff that can't be avoided when two separate minds that think creative and practical collide!! LOTS OF ARGUING!! Any who Michael finally asked me for Mother's day if I would like a new grill or rocks for my path, the new grill had not been purchased yet and we had not planned the cook out when this all happened but I asked for the rocks, mainly because we would HAVE to get a grill eventually with those stupid birds nesting in the old one. Any who he was out of town right after Mother's day so I took it upon myself to pick up the rocks, big sale, couldn't pass up. I also knew that if he thought about it too long he would change his mind. Which often happens when he has a laps of judgement and gives me what I want in order to get me something for an "important" holiday. Okay so I trapped him but what ever he offered I took. These rocks sat in front of that window for at least a month while more colliding of the minds took place. I gave, he gave and we finally settled on something we could both live with! HURRAY!! So my pathway is done and even more. Michael decided after hand digging sod up for 3 or 4 of the rocks that my idea to rent a sod cutter was much better! He was on such a roll with the sod cutter that we decided to go ahead and cut the path down the length of the house AND extend the back patio too!!

He wanted to do all of this in baby steps but once we got the sod cutter it was just 15 min and we were done, so why rent it again for the 2nd and 3rd baby steps (#2 the length of the house, #3 patio) So another pallet of rocks and lots and lots of hard work and sweat and it looks AWESOME!! Although we still need a 3rd pallet of rocks but time caught up with us and the patio will have to wait!!

AFTER, the dream is REALITY!















Michael did all of this on his own birthday too! What a guy, he really is my hero. As luck would have it our neighborhood was having their annual picnic so we got to enjoy a block party after we finished up. I told Michael that we invited the whole neighborhood and had his party catered with Rib Crib Barbecue (I love BBQ, I think Michael's warming up to it living with me for so long but I know he really likes okra now)!!



In the middle of getting pieces of sod put back between the rocks (we concluded this would be the best way as you can't keep Bermuda out of something like that and it would be easy to run the mower over top of the path too) we got rained on! It didn't last too long but long enough to make it even more humid than it already was and REALLY miserable to work in. We finished with the front walk and decided to get ready for "Michael's" party. So Sunday we finished with the rest of the path. I couldn't tell Michael enough how grateful I was for all of his hard work and sorry for not doing anything special on his birthday! Although I did prearrange for a sitter either Friday or Saturday he turned it down.
FINISHED with the front!
All yesterday (Monday, June 14th) it rained and rained A LOT!! So we got to see what needed to be tweaked in the path to keep the flow of water going. As you can see in the back all looks pretty good, the water is draining off to the side, but it does have to go under the fence so the path all up front is submerged!

We couldn't figure out a really great way to make the path kinda curvy but the dog had worn a really nice path in the grass that we followed. I think it turned out nice. Thanks Isabelle!
I'm hoping some day that all the grass between the house and path will be gone and filled with Hydrangea's and Azalea's boy those are beautiful and something you can't grow but indoors in Colorado. The half moon in front of the house will be a flower bed, it will definitely be a trial and error garden but my other flower bed has done really well so I guess if I just keep reading my gardening books and figure out what will work best there won't be too many errors!


Lots of rain, but drainage is good.

1 comment:

  1. wow that looks SOOO good!!!! I am so jealous!!!! with an acre and half we have to take MAJOR baby steps here too.

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