Making Progress...

We've been a little busy around here this Spring/Summer!  Our big mud puddle we had all winter and early Spring is starting to look like real landscaping!  It has been a lot of hard work, but we're pretty happy with the results.

It all started with a new concrete pathway leading from the front porch to the driveway.  From there, Joe (and Gabi!) built the rock wall that wraps from the sidewalk all the way around to the back of the house.  We collected lots of rocks near our house and also used some left over from our fireplace and porch columns.

We also lined the entire driveway with rocks and leveled out some of the sloping areas.  I don't know how many tons of rocks we used, but I'm sure it would have cost a small fortune if we would have had to buy them!  We also made a 4 foot apron all the way around our house with large rocks and then filled in with smaller rocks.  You can kinda see it in the picture below up around the house.  This will help keep moisture away from our foundation system.

The best investment we made was to have a sprinkler system installed!  It waters all the flowers above the rock wall, all the trees, the raised gardens, and it will eventually water the sod in the back. 


I planted somewhere between 200-300 perrenials in the area above the rock wall and to the left of the sidewalk.  Most of the ones in front I had started from seed in the greenhouse 2 winters ago and they grew in Joyce's garden last summer.  This Spring, I dug them all up and transplanted them over here.  They are doing well even though my soil isn't the greatest quality.  I started some others from seed in the greenhouse just this past winter and even though they're little, they're doing great.  I put them mostly on the side of the house.  I just got done putting down the mulch yesterday.

We still have a long ways to go with our grass in the front.  Since it has been such a hot, dry summer, I haven't had much luck getting native dryland grass seed to grow.  We have more weeds than we know what to do with.  In the backyard, we plan to put in sod, but have decided to wait until the weather cools down.  Sod needs a lot of water and the conservationist in me has trouble dumping thousands of gallons of water on green grass in the middle of a dryland prairie during a hot hot summer.  The girls are getting used to playing in the dirt and weeds anyways!  Ha!

On the other side of the house, we planted 2 pear trees, 2 apple trees, and a cherry tree.  There is also a birch tree up near the front of the house and a big blue spruce tree out in the yard.


Apple & Pear Trees with raised gardens.

Maya with the blue spruce tree. (Sorry blogger won't let me rotate my photos tonight.)  :-(

 Joe built me 3 raised gardens using old railroad ties for Mother's Day.  I've got 50 strawberry plants growing in the back two and vegetables growing in the front one.  I know they're hard to see, but the girls and I painted rocks to use as row markers for all the different plants.  They turned out really cute!

Climbing rose bush on the side of the house.

We mulched under the play set and sandbox so once we do get sod, we won't have to mow (or water) this area.

My next big project is to lay flat rocks as stepping stones from the concrete sidewalk through the flower garden all the way to the back of the house.  I've gotten about 6 feet so far.  The rest of the rocks I've collected so far are just scattered about the garden right now.  We will eventually need to go on another rock collecting outing for flat rocks!

The girls and I made some of our own stepping stones to add to the path.  I imprinted a few of them with flowers, I put the JH brand in one, the girls put their handprints in and decorated one apiece, and we also convinced Jackson and Rocky to allow us to imprint their paws.  :)  The girls thought that was great fun.  The pets...not so much.

Gabi's on top, Maya's on bottom.

Sweet Jackson dog's BIG paw print...so glad I got this before he left us. :(

And even though this technically isn't our yard/landscaping, we definitely have the best sprinkler ever just across the fence!

Thanks for checking in on our progress!

I'm Back.... ;o)

Oops...sorry about that long absence!  I've been neglecting this blog worse than Gabi & Maya's!  Now that school is out for the summer, I'll start putting some photos on here of our house progress and all of the things we've been loving while living in Wyoming.  Here are a few recent ones from this Spring that will get you started...



Baby antelope twins...Joe took this one morning while driving to work. 
(Antelope are some of the ugliest animals in my opinion, but antelope fawns are pretty cute.)

Some of the calves outside our backyard and Dave's sprinklers in the background.  We've enjoyed being so close to the cows and calves this Spring (but not those noisy bulls!) 

Don & Phyllis had a wild turkey sitting on a nest of 9 eggs in their yard for almost a month!  Those turkey eggs hatched the morning of Maya's birthday and we barely made it over in time to see all 9 baby turkeys waddling away behind their mama.  Maya doesn't think it is very funny that she shares a birthday with all the turkeys...we told her that makes her a little turkey!  You can kinda see all the babies in this picture...look closely!

Beautiful double rainbow to the East of our house after the passing storm.