Landscaping

Over the weekend my sister, a friend and I got down to business and laid sod in our front yard and the little patch of land between the sidewalk and the curb. It was HOT and I really hate sweating but overall it was fun and educational. I learned a whole lot more than I ever wanted to know about manure! Here's a few shots of the yard before we got started...

This is how it has looked for the last few weeks. Just dirt and a butt load of leaves that we had to rake (I use the word we loosely cuz our friend that was helping us, Ruth, did most of the raking).

This after Ruth raked and after we manured the lawn and tilled it.

Our first couple rows.

Ruth cutting the curve.

The section out by the street with our little crepe myrtle tree.

The other side of the lawn.

Here, in the front section we are planting native plants and grasses. Since we are in the middle of a drought we thought it wise to plant things that take minimal amounts of water. We also have some rubber mulch to lay in that section. Rubber mulch is a wonderful invention! It's made from recycled tires and since it is rubber you only need to mulch once instead of every year. Plus it won't get moldy or hold in any bacteria which is a blessing for dog owners!

A couple of the plants we're planting. That's about it for the front, at least for now.

In case you were wondering, in the back of the house, my tomatoes are really starting to make me happy!

The one on the bottom is my original tomato plant. It's just now starting to ripen...I can taste the salsa already! The one on top I got from someone on Freecycle. The tomatoes are teeny tiny. I think they're grape tomatoes or something like that. They're smaller than cherry tomatoes. These are all being given away as they ripen because they're not exactly salsa material and neither my sister nor I actually eat tomatoes in any other way other than salsa or pasta sauce.

So, my foray into the world of gardening isn't going as bad as I thought it would even though our grass is already struggling to stay green. All thanks to the help of good friends and one very green thumbed mother.