New Landscaping Project

I recently learned how to drive the zero turn mower (due to Karlo being laid up and then recovering) and I'm so thrilled that I did. That thing is a total hoot to drive. I positively love it and now I beg Karlo to let me cut some of the grass. I drive all over the yard, grinning ear to ear, catching bugs in my teeth. But that's OK. I just can't get enough of driving it. At least not yet. I'm sure the novelty will wear off one of these days.

One good thing came from me learning how to cut the grass. I realized that it's damned near impossible to mow a certain portion of grass without throwing all the grass clipping straight into our little goldfish pond. I have given Karlo so much grief over this in the past. I was so irritated that he was so thoughtless, but now I see that he really had no other choice. It only took one mowing for me to craft a solution. We needed to remove all the grass near the pond. I got this brilliant idea last weekend as we were lounging on the side porch, looking out over our disaster of a side yard. I let the idea percolate for a week and then we ran to Home Depot just as soon as we could to get some supplies.

It was tons of digging and tons of work and my back is killing me. I don't even want to show you the rocks that Karlo had to mine (lift into the trailer and back out of the trailer). Don't get me wrong, I did some major heavy lifting too, but the fact that Karlo was doing this so soon after surgery just made me crazy.

And speaking of Karlo and his back. Let me introduce you to Mister Stump, the evil bastard that broke Karlo . . . The one he tried to lift and throw into the trailer while it was still attached to the ground . . .


Karlo had it in the fire pit but I insisted on dragging it out for two reason: 1) it was seriously cool looking and 2) I thought it deserved a little shrine. For sure it will be a conversation piece for years to come. I need to make a little garden sign for it that says, "The Stump That Broke Karlo."

And here is the almost completed new landscaping. We still need more plants and materials, but it's getting there. We dug out all the grass to the left of the goldfish pond and existing rock garden. We added a two-tier planting bed and made the stone walkway.


The top view may be easier to see. I should have taken some pictures of Karlo near the stump and on the stone walkway rocks to give you some scale. Those stinkin' rocks are big!