Genius at Work

In looking through my blog archives, I found this photo I took almost two years ago when our front yard (and the whole damn street) was dug up for the great sidewalk project.














Here's a shot from the same general area Saturday afternoon.














For years and years, every time Eric's company takes out an existing landscape to put in a new one, he's been bringing plants home. (they go to the dump or the burn pile if he does not salvage them.)

We've had all kinds of mystery bulbs (well, they're mysterious until they bloom for the first time, but it's still fun) as well as trees and shrubs of all sorts. He plants them in pots or in the huge raised planter he built in the back yard several years ago.

I never asked why he was saving all those plants, I just figured it was his thing, ya know?

He's been working on the front yard off and on, and today he transplanted a bunch of stuff from the back into the front yard. We didn't have to buy ANY plants for this project, thanks to the genius who saved them!

We're still a couple years away from fully done, because it takes time for the plants to fill in the available space and mature a bit and he still has more to plant.

Also, he needs to add the bark dust.

I took a few pictures this afternoon to show you what he's done so far. There was a vehicle parked in my way, so I didn't get a full frontal shot, but eventually I will.














I especially like the dry streambed. Never heard of one until he put it in the front yard, but I can't wait until the ground cover actually goes down to the edges of it. Probably next spring or the one after. If you're still reading here, and I'm still blogging, remind me to post some more pictures.

I think it's so cool that he can do stuff like this. He said that with the sprinkler system, the boulders, rocks, and soil he's added (we paid for all that, but got a discount through his work) as well as the free plants he stuck out there today that it would be about a 25 to 30 thousand dollar bid from his company to put it in. He said the cost of the mature Lace Leaf Maples and the Forsythia and Dogwood trees alone would have been about three grand.

Our total cost, including paying some of his guys to come help? About $2500.00.