We haven't had a finished back garden since we bought this house, which was 8 years ago! We landscaped half of it, using gravel and bark and I planted lots of perennials, and drought tolerant plants. I wanted to try and create an English type garden here in Colorado, and some of my neighbors laughed at me! But I have persevered, and now it's all coming together. The garden has willows along the rear fence, which provide wonderful shade for the hot afternoons. I have Lilac and Russian Sage, which the hummingbirds love. I have Shasta Daisies, Asters and Dogwood, which all provide color and texture throughout the year. We have a designated area for the birds, with feeders and a bird bath, and small wind chimes which sound lovely on a breezy evening, but not so nice when the wind blows up a storm, as it often does here in Monument. The initial plan was to continue with xeriscaping, completing the entire garden and adding in a water feature and a patio, but we had twin boys instead! Our plans were shelved so we could raise our sons, money became more sparse and the garden was half gravel and plants and half weed. Boys, gravel and dirt don't really mix! Well, of course they do, and they love it, but me and my wood floors do not!
Last week we noticed one of the sod farms near here had free delivery, so we ordered 1000 square foot of sod (our garden is HUGE and we needed that much sod just to cover half of the garden). We prepared ourselves for some hard work. And it was hard work, back breaking work. Preparing the ground was much, much harder than either of us had realised. We rented a tiller and a roller, we pulled weeds, and plowed the weeds, removed rocks and stones and plastic spades, added soil enrichers and worked until the sun disappeared over the mountains behind us!
The sod arrived on Friday morning, just before the boys went to preschool, and they loved watching the pallets being lifted off the truck. I was excited to get started although daunted by the task in front of us. But I changed my clothes and began work. First of all, I could barely lift a roll of sod, it's SO heavy. But I managed to get 3 in the wheel barrow (I can hear you all laughing) and then just about tipped the barrow over trying to move it! Chuck became the serf part of my title, he moved all the sod to wherever I needed it, while I rolled it all out, staggered it in the correct fashion and fitted it all together like a jigsaw - I have always loved jigsaws!
By the time I went to fetch the boys from school at noon, almost half of the sod was laid, and realising we could actually do this in one day if we pushed ourselves, we went for it. I was SO tired, and aching and hurting but we kept on, and by 5.30pm last night, we had laid all the sod! Our garden looks wonderful, really wonderful. I am so excited to finally have the lawn and can't wait for the boys to be able to lie on it and look at the clouds, to play in the paddling pool and kick balls about in the summer. All they want to do right now though, is make snowmen, it's all they talk about! And while I keep telling them it's not the right time for snow and they understand that it's not yet winter, they still want it to snow!
Last week we noticed one of the sod farms near here had free delivery, so we ordered 1000 square foot of sod (our garden is HUGE and we needed that much sod just to cover half of the garden). We prepared ourselves for some hard work. And it was hard work, back breaking work. Preparing the ground was much, much harder than either of us had realised. We rented a tiller and a roller, we pulled weeds, and plowed the weeds, removed rocks and stones and plastic spades, added soil enrichers and worked until the sun disappeared over the mountains behind us!
The sod arrived on Friday morning, just before the boys went to preschool, and they loved watching the pallets being lifted off the truck. I was excited to get started although daunted by the task in front of us. But I changed my clothes and began work. First of all, I could barely lift a roll of sod, it's SO heavy. But I managed to get 3 in the wheel barrow (I can hear you all laughing) and then just about tipped the barrow over trying to move it! Chuck became the serf part of my title, he moved all the sod to wherever I needed it, while I rolled it all out, staggered it in the correct fashion and fitted it all together like a jigsaw - I have always loved jigsaws! By the time I went to fetch the boys from school at noon, almost half of the sod was laid, and realising we could actually do this in one day if we pushed ourselves, we went for it. I was SO tired, and aching and hurting but we kept on, and by 5.30pm last night, we had laid all the sod! Our garden looks wonderful, really wonderful. I am so excited to finally have the lawn and can't wait for the boys to be able to lie on it and look at the clouds, to play in the paddling pool and kick balls about in the summer. All they want to do right now though, is make snowmen, it's all they talk about! And while I keep telling them it's not the right time for snow and they understand that it's not yet winter, they still want it to snow!
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