A bunch has happened since the last post mid April. We had just moved in and started working on the landscaping. We had the same guy that built the retaining wall in the back build some more rock cutouts for us in the front. 

At first it was hard to fully invision what the guy was doing with the rocks. But when he was finished it was almost like he took a firehose and washed the dirt away from the rocks and the following pictures show what was left.

It's also amazing what 5-6 truckloads of topsoil will do for the looks of a place. We had the guy do the rock walls, irrigation, Burgandy rubble in the park strips and topsoil.  

Zach and Barb dug the holes for the trees and shrubs. It's confirmed to be true that we have a 4" rock every 3" in this lot. Zach said something about take the rock out and put the tree in.  

The Japanese Maple and the Dwarf Boxwood will eventually hide the irrigation back flow preventer.

We decided to save some of the Scrub Oak in the back. Free trees-well, give or take the price of the lot. We got a bunch of rocks as well not forgetting the Prickly Pear Cactus. 

A couple of the neighbors dropped by to check out the work.

One of the other rock cutouts we had the guy build in the back to soften the slope. It took some doing but we got the sod delivery guy to place some pallets of sod in the back so we wouldn't have to haul it so far. There is 600 square feet on each pallet. We had 10 1/2 pallets delivered. Bobby apparently didn't pay attention in geometry class because with all the angles and curves in the yard we ended up with a pallet and half left over. Ugh! :-( 

The two green boxes in the bottom part are where four of the seven valves for the irrigation are located. The other three valves are in the front with the timer located in the garage.

We had the delivery guy place 4 pallets and the partial in the back and the rest in the front. The rolls are 2 feet wide and five feet long weighing about 25-30 pounds each. The sod is called Bio Grass and is a seven seed Kentucky Blue Grass mix that comes from Vernon Utah. They had cut it the night before or early morning and delivered it around 10 AM on Friday the 13th. They recommend having it down and well watered within 24 hours of receiving it.   

Can't afford real curbing yet so we have make believe curbing.

After several hours of fun in the sun-two days in a row, back muscles that won't be talking to us anytime soon and a barrel of water each-we have instant lawn. Thank you Tyson, Bill, Barb from one well meaning supervisor. I won't take any of your gestures personally. :-)

One of three Purple Leaf Plumb trees in the park strip. We also planted a Shademaster Honeylocust in the other cutout, Dwarf Barberries, Ornamental Grass and a Dappled Willow.

Hopefully towards the end of summer, early fall, we will have a fence built around the back yard and most of the shrubs put in the bottom part around the back and sides of the house before snow flies next fall. The spot on the west-side of the garage will be home to some raised planting beds for vegetables and herbs next spring.