Landscaping Start

The post-work daylight hours are getting decidedly shorter these days but we managed to get a fair bit done this evening anyway.  We planted four of our five trees - and the fifth one has to wait until we clear the rest of the pavers from the front yard.  We have two Leyland Cypresses in the back corner - they're fast growing evergreens and should provide nice cover to hide the air conditioning units.  We had originally picked out two small ones of the same size but between Saturday morning, when we put our "sold" tags on the two trees, and this morning when it was time to load the trees onto the delivery truck, one of them disappeared into the hands of another customer.  The nursery kindly replaced it with a much larger Cypress, which fills the space even more nicely than planned.  On the right corner of the patio, we planted a Weeping Alaskan Cedar as an ornamental tree.  The fire pit will eventually go on that corner of the patio so the tree should be a nice focal point behind it and we love the long lines of the tree.  This may have been the buy of the day too - a formerly $200 tree marked down to a mere $20 - you can't beat an end of season sale!  And finally, on the left corner of the patio, we put in a Kwanzan Flowering Cherry.  It's quite compact right now but should spread quickly to become a much wider and bigger tree with the classic lovely pink blossoms next year.  We'll have to have our  own Cherry Tree Festival in the backyard next spring!

We have more grasses and shrubs to plant tomorrow night but the yard is already looking much better!   You might also notice that the garage is back under construction and making progress, another good development after a few weeks of rather frustrating and inexplicable delay.  Fortunately, I think we've straightened things out and they should finish up the framing and roofing next week - and then we'll take over for siding, windows, doors, electric, etc.  Still quite a few weekends of work left to finish before winter gets here but every night and weekend gets us a little closer to checking the outdoor projects off our list.