Sod, Flowers and Veggies

I moved into my house 4 1/2 years ago. While the house was in decent shape, the yard was atrocious. The sprinkler system was complete crap and there wasn't any kind of landscaping in at all. The first year I focused on the front yard. I seeded the lawn, side yard and park strips. I planted four trees, iris, day lillies, daisies, tulips and chrysanthemums. All of these survived and are still doing very well.

Year two was spent weeding and trying to help the plants in front survive. The morning glory in Riverton is just awful. It is a never ending battle trying to get rid of them. I also began trying to figure out how I could landscape the back and somehow get the West side of my house cooler. With the help of my family we put in a good sized deck and some sod that my dad's friend gave me.

Year three was the year of the sprinkler system. I had attempted to hire a friend's brother who owns a landscaping business to come install the system, but he ended up flaking out. Knowing that I had tried, my dad felt bad and started to work on it himself in late Summer. I hired someone to come in and design the system and we began the long tedious process that is installation. Since we could only work on the project on Saturday's it took several months to complete. Travis trenched the entire yard, my dad, mom and I laid all of the pipe, and my dad did all of the electrical work. By the time we had gotten that far, it was winter and time to quit. While working on the system, Travis had cut down my front fence so he could trench the yard easier. Nala also decided that she wanted to see what was going on next door and decided to take a look. For those of you that don't know, Nala is Michael's Great Dane and they live next door. Having a 200lbs dog trying to peak over put a lot of stress on the poorly built fence and it eventually toppled. So we decided it was time to put in a new fence in March. We ended up going with a tan vinyl fence (no maintenance products is all I do).

Year four involved finishing the sprinkler system during the spring. We also laid about 600 sq ft of sod that year as well. I spent so much time out of town last year I really didn't get to do much on the yard. Between Girls Camp, Snowbird and my 3 Chicago trips, the summer was gone.

Year Five so far has been a really busy year. I laid 2000 sq ft of sod. I planted a salsa garden and a peach tree and by the end of the summer will have raspberry bushes, a compost area and my southwest corner will finally be cleared of the sticker weeds and huge clumps of cement (thank you Michael).

I am so excited to finish these projects. I have not had a garden since I moved and I have truly missed making homemade salsa. It is such a stress reliever for me. While I was studying for my CPA exam I would listen to Mr Joe Ben Hoyle on CD and blanch, dice and bottle salsa for hours. I think it greatly contributed to my passing the exam that November. I am also excited for all of the peppers. I always have more peppers than I can possible use for the salsa and I am going to try drying them and then making spices out of them. I love to cook with pepper spices all year round. My favorites are cayenne and habenaro!!!