Landscaping is Hard Work

So, when I set out a few months ago to start this landscaping project, I thought to myself "this will just take a day or two". Well, that was not the case. It took so long! And so much work! But look how beautiful it turned out!
At first I started with my little tool that breaks up dirt, but it was clear it would take forever to do the whole section like that. In addition we had a huge dirt pile from the egress excavation and I didn't want to add to it (Kyle hated that pile of dirt already!). So, we rented a rototiller- and we found the earth was hard as rock and it was still super hard to get the dirt out. So, together we rototilled and shoveled a truck load of dirt out of there. Then we leveled it and I began the edging and landscape fabric portion of the project. I don't recommend using that black plastic edging -ever. In the future I'll be using the aluminum edging that you just hammer in (had I known that made this I would have got it from the start). When I went to Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply this past weekend to get a couple of shrubs and more edging, I ran into a big sale- 30% off all trees, shrubs and perennials-just what I needed. So I bought a few things and headed home to start work. After working all day Saturday and for 3 hours on Sunday, here's the completed project:






I'm so happy with the finished product. We're going to add another potentilla shrub towards the end by the garage and then maybe a plant or two each year. I'd also like so more little rock temples and maybe a gnome or two... But this is what we wanted for now and it looks so nice compared to the compacted dirt landscape that was there before.

Note: In addition to the landscaping, I also had to spend time tamping in all the dirt around the egress window this past weekend. We got hurricane-style storms last week and our egress window well filled up with water and went right into our new bedroom downstairs...twice...ugh. It's all dried out now and we think we have solved the problem of the well filling up, but only time will tell. Our wool carpet is okay for now, but probably needs to be replaced sooner then later....