Say Goodbye to The Dirt

The majority of the landscaping for this season has been completed.  What a relief!

Remember the cracked driveway I told you about? (The fence workers drove their big truck on our driveway and broke the concrete.) That has one more day of dry time before we can drive on it.

That machine is unbelievably loud. Prior to removing the whole square of concrete, they tried to drill out the crack and patch it. Not even two weeks later it cracked again so the fence company had to foot the bill for the entire section to be replaced. I’m betting they were not happy about it.

These are the cement guys that handle all of our builder’s cement needs. Just so happens, I recognized the one in the red baseball cap who owns the cement company. We went to junior high and high school together! It’s been fun visiting with him over the past several weeks when he’s working in the neighborhood.

Once the cement on the driveway was poured the landscapers got started.

Sprinklers lines being dug. That’s Jamal, he was our favorite. The whole landscaping crew was great, but he was here first and left last every day and had a keen eye for detail. He is also just a genuinely, nice, guy.

Top soil and boulders for the terraced area and yard.

We called Matt and Ken the “rock whisperers”. They knew just how to maneuver the fork lift prongs on that machine to spin all the rocks so they would have their best face forward.

Contemplating where the best place would be to start the concrete curbing on the side of the house. It breaks easily if run over by a car and is $250 to have the curb guy come out and fix it.

We’d like to avoid that.

More contemplating and the beginning of one of the beds. Tony and I purchased and planted all of the trees, bushes, plants, and flowers. We worked as a team with the landscapers and it worked out very well. Saved some big $$$$ by purchasing and planting our own greenery.

Men seem to do a lot of contemplating. I knew exactly what I wanted and where I wanted it.

Women are weird like that.

The house came with front landscaping but we felt it needed a little tweaking . We removed a few things that didn’t look like they would make it through the winter and added two trees and a few bushes and flowers.

I am in love with these two trees. I love their “uniqueness”. The nursery lady suggested I name them.

I may just do that. Is that weird?

This is a Weeping Atlantic Cedar.

And this is a Topiary Pine…but I can’t remember what type.

These are the curbing guys. What none of us know at this point of my picture taking is that their FIVE hours of hard work will be destroyed by a massive rain storm three minutes after they drive out of our neighborhood.

You can see the storm brewing…

I asked him about the sky, but he said, “a few sprinkles won’t hurt”.

We got more than just a few sprinkles and all of the edging was destroyed. They had to return the next day, dig all of it up and replace it.

I spared him photo taking on the second day. I figured when he returned to replace all of their hard work on his weekend off, it was probably the last place he wanted to be. So I stayed in the house and kept my camera off and my mouth shut.

Once the majority of the beds were in, greenery planted, and new edging was dry, they started placing the sod.

 

Finishing touches were made to the beds, sprinklers were adjusted, drainage ditches were dug along the driveway, and the  gravel for the parking space for our trailer on the side of the house was completed.

More men contemplating.

Nick on the far left, Tony my husband in the middle, and Jamal on the right.

Then flagstone was brought in for the path to the future hot tub and the small terraced corner.

Jamal cutting out grass for the flagstone path.

I think all landscaping was accomplished in under 10 days.

To the right is a Maple Leaf Hydrangea. Gorgeous. I can’t wait until next year to see what it can really do.

All of the hills beside us and behind us were sold by a local farmer (right next door) to the county for walking trails. We’re blessed to be able to enjoy that view every day and the wild life that goes along with it.

Two Magnolia trees (Alexandria Magnolia), and a Fernleaf Buckthorne in the corner.

A Flowering Cherry (Little Twist Cherry) that will only grow to be about 6-8 feed wide at the top…we’ll see. The area with hose and gravel will be the home for the hot tub.

A Bloodgood Japanese Maple. Right now up close it looks like it’s in shock. Hopefully it will perk up. If not, we have a one year warranty on all the trees. Phew.

A Crabapple tree (Prairifire Crabapple).

All the trees in the backyard are flowering trees with the exception of the Buckthorne.

A beautiful water feature will go in on the left side of this bed next spring.

The tree in this bed is a Vanderwolf’s Pyramid Pine Tree. It will grow to be 35 feet tall and will live for at least 100 years.

Gates go up this sometime this week.

Then we’ll get our trailer out of storage and pray that it fits in the space its supposed to. Behind that fence post and future gates.

Another gate will go on this end and they’ll finish off the fence.

So all in all, working with our landscaping crew was an enjoyable experience. I actually kind of miss not having the hubbub going on outside and their funny personalities here every day.

Enjoying our coffee and tea on the patio and not having to deal with a dirt backyard and filthy dogs?

Priceless.