Landscaper's challenge, Part 2

First of all, you will have to forgive me for not updating as frequently as I did when the weather was cold. Now that it's warm again, I haven't been making use of as much "computer time." But I'm sure you understand.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am in the process of taking on my annual Spring landscaping projects. This year has been a busy one so far, but I'm enjoying the fruit of my labors.

This morning, I took a few hours and tackled a project I have wanted to do since September 2002. I planted 7 Colorado Spruce trees near the property line that runs along the side of my house. It has always bugged me that there was no real distinction between my yard and my neighbor's yard (other than the fact that their lawn is riddled with crabgrass and mine is no longer - observe picture above which was taken from my neighbors lawn). So today I took a shovel and seven trees and got to work. Incidentally, someone told me that today is Earth Day. Let me state for the record that if I had realized that, I would likely have waited until tomorrow to plant the trees.....but I digress.

I'm thankful that my soil isn't rocky, but the digging was tiring just the same. One of my neighbors, Rose, lent me a post hole digger when she realized what I was doing. I said "Thank you" and then pretended to use it because all it did was make the digging process take twice as long. Still I was thankful for the kind gesture. That was actually the first conversation I have ever had with Rose. It was nice to finally meet her.

Yesterday, I took the time to remove 3 azaleas that had died last year. The two that I removed from in front of my house I replaced with barbaries because I like their crimson color (observe the picture above of one of the barbaries).

I have also been adding a block perimeter around my house to keep the mulch from washing away. I'm using the same kind of block that I used to build the retaining wall around the gazebo. I'll update with a picture once that project is complete. Parts of it are visible in the two pictures above.

If you have made it this far into this entry without falling asleep, please let me know. I am passionate about lawnwork and I would love to instill that same "fire" in the hearts of each reader of "Stump the Pastor."