This just keeps getting better...not

Well, the plan was to till and seed the yard this weekend, but it appears the geniuses who created this "great" landscape bed decided to put 6" wide metal edging completely around the edge of the bed, but completely under the soil! I made this great discovery trying to pull out more landscape fabric. So, what's a few more hours with a shovel digging it out??

You know, I think this may be payback from all the times I nonchalantly told a client how to easily reseed a lawn. ;)

But I got a break from the yard work since my friend Erica is here and we've been having fun hiking and looking for a place for her to live in Denver.

PS. We're still planning on tilling tomorrow. We'll see what happens!

Mountain of Mulch

My main priority in the front yard is to get a nice lawn going. So the first step to that was removing the mulch, landscape fabric, etc. so we can till it up and reseed. So the fabric was pulled up and the mulch piled up.

Then there's the issue of where to put it for the time being...how about beside the driveway! Umpteen wheelbarrow fulls later, there is sits!

Well, at least now its clean...or so I thought.

Never, Ever use landscape fabric or black plastic!

If you really want to torture the people who live in a place after you...put landscape fabric or black plastic under every flowerbed you have. To make it even better, cover it with large gravel. That way when the stuff starts rotting and coming to the surface, the gravel works its way into the soil and you can't dig in it despite needing to pull out the disintegrating pieces of landscape fabric or plactic! Yikes!

My suggestion, instead, is use a mulch that will break down (i.e. wood chips, cottonseed hulls, etc) and will contribute organic matter to the soil; rather than rocks, which, although you do not have to replace them as often, create problems when working in the bed and cause more heat load on the plants. Just the hort tip of the day!

Task 1: Weeding

After 3 hours on my knees in the gravel, being jabbed by stupid hollies and thistles, the bed was clear of small stuff. Still had nasty elm, hackberry, and russian olive trees to remove. The hollies will be removed soon I hope. Task 2: Front bed; the euonymus will be removed as well.

Now the front corner bed doesn't look like no one lives here!

The "Ultimate Landscape Makeover" - McCollum Style

Well, here's the house: A little outdated, yes. Unkept and overgrown, oh yes. The following are some other lovely views of the yard. Don't get me wrong, the back yard is nice; needs some work, but is nice, but the front yard....oh my. Alot of work is in store.

This is the bed right in front of the house.

This is the bed on the street. This is the front "lawn" with a large area of mulch in the middle which previously had plants in it.

So this is what I am up against. To prevent these things from being excessively long, the next post will show my progress so far.

Rocky Mountain High...

Well, we finally have internet access, so i can give some updates and post some pictures from our adventures here in Colorado Springs. The weather has been wonderful (only had to run the air conditioner one time) and the backdrop of the mountains and Pike's Peak to the west is very nice to look at.

Colorado Springs is a large city (for us) at 400,000 people. That has taken some getting used to. Thankfully I don't have to deal with the traffic on the interstate like Ryan does getting to and from work. We live 10 miles from Fort Carson and it usually takes him about 20-30 minutes to get home.

Each of the last two weekends we have loaded up Buster and headed for the mountains, which only takes 30 minutes to get to. We have been searching out trout streams to fish that aren't packed with people, but haven't had much luck yet. We found one good one, but everyone and their dog (literally) was out there. I guess you have to get there early. But we have had fun driving up through the mountains and checking things out.

My schedule is kindof ironing out now that we've gotten the house in order: yardwork in the morning and then housework, cooking, ironing, etc. in the afternoon. I am enjoying not having to go go go, but the long days alone were pretty tough at first. I will look for a part-time job eventually, but right now this yard project has to be tackled while I have a little growing season left. I will write some separate posts about the yard project.

We have finally settled on a church. It is pretty large, but I think we will find more people our age there and can get involved through small groups, etc. I am excited about meeting some people.

After a week or so of intermittent crying, I am okay with things now and am at peace with the way things are going. There will still be adjustments, but I think the hardest part is over.