Graduation Party Projects - Part 2

The previous owners of our home put in a lot of flowerbeds throughout the yard, and they were very beautiful......when we bought the house 14 years ago.

It has been continuous work to keep all the beds weeded.  At first I really enjoyed it.  I had three little ones and I would work in the yard as they played nearby.  It worked.

But as we added more children to our family and moved into higher grades of school, yard work had to take a back seat to more important things.  This large flowerbed mocked me with its constant weeds.  I could *never* keep it looking neat.

So with our daughter's grad party coming up, I decided to get rid of this bed.  I pulled out every growing thing and dug up the lamp post.  Moved living plants to other beds, threw away the dead ones.  Moved 13 decorative boulders to other places in our yard.  Dug up the sprinkler system hose and plugged up all the little dripper hoses, then re-buried it.   Hours and hours of work ~ if only sweat translated to weight loss!

With just a large swath of dirt left, my husband leveled it and put down a base of small pebbles, then a second layer of sand.  On this he laid paver stones, and we enlarged our patio.  More hours and hours of work.

Now we have a paved area for our fire pit!  I absolutely love it and we will get so much use out of this space!

Thank you, me.  And thank you, hubby.