rather than angular, and used cut-down mailbox posts for the railing balustrades. It was our little backyard oasis!

backyard into a secret garden I envisioned a peaceful retreat overflowing with beautiful flowers and plants. I began the process by using "lasagna gardening" to cover all of the grass in the entire yard. On top of the grass went newspapers and cardboard followed by garden soil and then mulch. Now I had my "blank canvas." For a bit I got a case of "writer's block" (or should I say "gardener's block!) and felt overwhelmed by what I was doing. Where to start? I had an entire backyard to fill. This post is documenting how my secret garden is developing. All the plants seem so tiny! I know that it is going to take a few years before it becomes the garden of my dreams, but I am enjoying it tremendously! Hope you will enjoy watching too. Let the gardening games begin :)

level the ground where the tub would set, put down the 2 x 2 concrete blocks, set the tub, and said we'd deal with the rest of the yard later... That didn't work so well for me, so yesterday - with a flat shovel and a wheel barrel, I got to work escavating around the tub area. There is a slope in the ground, so I am building up in the back. I need to finish killing the grass, relocate the flower bed... lots of work to go still. Hill Country is full of rock, so it's no easy task out here! I like home talk because I can keep track of my progress as I go, I will post more as I get it completed.

seem to buy houses that have no landscaping, I have learned how to do it on the cheap.

Here are some of my best tips: .

#1 - Use as many free materials in your landscape as you can. Every part of the world has at least one thing in abundance that you can use for free, be it gravel, rocks or stones; wood,pallets or pine needles; dumpsters, landfill sites or Craig's List and Freecycling networks as cheap sources for repurposed items. Find out what's in your own neighbourhood or town and use it! I've used my local freecycling network to find plants and shrubs for free. I got a whole lilac hedge that way, it really works!!

#2 - Beg for plant divisions or cuttings from family, friends and neighbours. Anyone who has perennials , bulbs or tubers will have to be dividing them up every so often and will be happy to let you have the extras.

#3 - Look for local gardening clubs, they usually have plant sales once or twice a year to raise money for the club and you can get beautiful plants for much less than gardening centers sell them. Plus you know they will survive in your climate because the local gardeners have grown them.

#4 - Watch for end-of-season sales. You can pick up loads of plants at a discount from department stores that have seasonal garden centers. That's where you can pick up your trees and shrubs for less and save big!

#5 - Grow your own plants from seed. Some plants are super simple to grow, you can even just toss the seeds out in your garden at the right time and they'll grow well. Hardy geraniums,sunflowers and pansies are easy to start from seed. Poppies and cosmos are good examples of seeds you can just sow directly in the garden. Opium poppies can even be sown while there is still snow on the garden

#6 - Grow plants that self-seed or spread easily. Examples are creeping thyme, culinary thyme, Johnny Jump-ups, Ladies' Mantle, campanula, euphorbia, lamium, bugleweed, poppies and bee balm. I don't quite understand the desire for growing borderline plants in the garden. I personally don't want to drag some plant kicking and screaming into my garden, I'd much rather have ones that are happily growing and flowering and self-seeding all over.

The best part about rampant growers and self-seeders is that every year, you can dig up the extras and sell them at a yard sale to make some extra cash for the landscaping items that you can't get for free.

Hope I've been able to give you at least one tip you can use. Happy gardening!

#landscaping #gardening #Maygarden

painting and new garage doors, but we are hiring those done. Even though I'm a good painter and have painted houses before , inside and out, my ladder days are over!

For me, the most rewarding changes have been accomplished in the landscape. My best friend teased the daylights out of me when we bought a house with "tortured shrubbery" (clipped into box and spiral shapes). But it was a half acre after a tiny lot and, even though two-thirds of it was covered in ivy and pachysandra, I knew there was a wonderful garden waiting to happen. And, there was a garden shed and an extra garage on the back of the house to store all my garden tools, pots and whatnot!

See and read some more at http://ourfairfieldhomeandgarden.com/5-years... and on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/barbrosen/our-fairfield...

#BeforeandAfter

#Gardening

So my younger brother and a helper came and went to work on this. Had to move and replace the ingrown sprinklers, (got a visit from the city months later that someone turned me in for doing sprinklers without a permit but she agreed no problem if REPLACING old to new in same quantity) My other brother helped with the final work of placing the pipes.

So here is when we first dug up the yard...but there was family medical emergency keeping up from being able to finish for about 2 months so this wonderful crab grass kept taking root! even in 100 degree heat with zero water! Guess I should have watered that!

We bought Sod from a local company (not shipped in) cut up and put down in one day! Moved brick from 2 sides of the driveway to a single side to make a nice pathway to the door,

Then last pictures are of what it looks like now...still not complete...I have some more perenials to behind the newly planted Petunias...

worth anything and is it worth having it cut somewhere? Thanks for your help!