My Next Project

I sent Dave and Mike to Lowe's and the Randall Walker Nursery Thursday morning. At the nursery I asked them to find a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. I decided not to settle for anything else, and I am so glad I didn't buy the ones I saw at Lowe's on Wednesday, as this one was so much nicer. It's the tree in the middle of the flower pots. And the white lattice panels I had them buy were for my next project.

 Here are some shots of the Japanese Maple. The coral colored bark and lacy leaves make this a beautiful specimen for the front of our entrance. The flower pots have to go.

In the back of our house is the other deck which gets ignored because the railroad ties heat up in the hot sun and the creosote preservative is kinda stinky. So I thought we could cover them with these heavy duty plastic lattice and spruce up the spot, as well as lessen the sun's impact on the retaining wall timbers. We moved all the potted plants here to make a pretty arrangement and brought out the bench, table and chairs to tuck into the shade next to the house. It gets hot here in the mid afternoon, but is just the perfect spot to cool off after a soak in the hot tub in the early morning or at dusk. Or to have a cocktail at sunset. Yum.


This facelift was relatively inexpensive, since we already had the plants and furniture. The panels were only $28 each, and so easy to screw into the retaining wall wood.
 It was cool at dinner time so we had some quiche that I had made earlier and whiskey sours, all the food groups.


The water lilies are blooming away and so pretty for so early in the season. We can see them from the back deck.


Now the new tree is planted and so is the big flat rock which will hold something significant whenever we figure out what that may be. When all the leaves fall later this autumn we will have the adjacent magnolia bush moved from the current spot. It is too close to the planter box and we need a space to walk along the side there, just where it is planted.
The landscaping continues tomorrow with more mulch and the planting of my newly purchased plants. The goal is to be finished by Memorial Day. Not that we have a REAL deadline. But one wants to feel like it is time to make use of the features we have created.