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The Steph's Guide to Landscaping

This weekend was The Steph's dream...I went to Home Depot not once, but twice - and filled my truck both times! I also went to a giant garden store and filled my truck there. I also had the opportunity to go to Sam's Club and get a giant soda for 47 cents. The only real tie-in between that and the gardening is that it was on the way home and we had to get chicken for the grill. However none of the wonderous things purchased at any of these places were for me...well, except for the soda. I spent the past 3 days helping a friend, B, do the landscaping/gardening to fill in some garden space created when he had a new stone patio added to his house. What a great adventure!

The whole story started a couple weeks ago when B made the mistake of asking myself and another friend about our opinions regarding what he should do with some landscaping he was going to have done. He knows nothing about plants or trees or flowers or dirt or mulch, so he wanted to see what the two of us thought. So we looked at the landscapers' estimates, looked at his yard and said, "Well, we can do this for you - for a lot cheaper!" For some reason he agreed, and off we went!

Over the last few weeks we have taken some scouting trips. We went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum for ideas, and hit a couple garden and home improvement stores. During all of these trips, B cultivated his ideas, and decided upon what he wanted. And on Saturday, it all started to fall in to place!

Saturday morning we gathered up at his house, and to start off the project, many feet of lower branches of some giant pine trees were cut out because they were dead or looked like crap. Therefore leaving a giant clearing under each tree - which will be landscaped at a later point in time. And then the other friend went home, and B and I headed off to the garden center to buy plants!

When all was said and done, we went home with the following list of items in my truck (I have pulled some pictures as examples!):

* 3 dwarf lilac bushes




* 2 weigelas


* 60 yellow snapdragons (1 flat)


* 60 verbena (1 flat)
* 2 big Lambs Ears
* 1 salvia

* 1 of something else I can't remember

* 3 random herbs

* 2 succulant creeper things that are pretty cool.

So we got these all back to B's house, and ended the day.


On Sunday, B and I got going early and went to Home Depot! The happiest place on earth! We got a laundry list of great stuff:


* 6 bags of cypress mulch


* 10 bags of top soil

* 1 container of fresh transplant-friendly fertilizer

* 1 giant container of fertilizer/weed killer

* 1 hose nozzle

* 1 pair of gardening gloves (for The Steph)

And then we planted everything! So that was Sunday.

Then today we needed more mulch and top soil. So we headed BACK to Home Depot! And bought 18 more bags of mulch and 4 more bags of top soil. And it completely filled my lil truck. It was rather awesome.

I was reminded that there are always 2 types of people at Home Depot/Lowes, pick your poison...


Type A: People that are really excited about this great home improvement/gradening/repair project they are about to start and will talk to anyone and anything in the store. They will convince you to buy a certain flower or a color paint to compliment a sneaker. Or they will offer their expert opinion on everything from lawn mowers to fertilizer to light fixtures. I have decided that I am one of these people. As is everyone in my family.


Type B: People who are really pissed off to be in the store because either something broke and they have to fix it or his wife is making him do something and he would rather be watching the hockey/basketball/baseball/NASCAR race/poker tourney on TV. These people inevitably wind up in the longest lines, don't have scan codes for prices on the one item they grabbed, and then they get stopped for approval in the self check-out line.


One other thing that always cracks me up...no matter what you have in your basket - be it 1 tiny daisy, 87 bags of mulch, the repair kit for a toilet or a broom...the person next to/behind/in front of you in line will say, "Got a lot of work to do this weekend, eh?"


It amuses me - isn't that why EVERYONE is at Home Depot? Because they have something to do and they are going to do it with the something they will buy.

And then we went back and finished the mulching part of the job. It turned out great, B has a beautiful patio area, and he saved a ton of money using my green thumb.

Gosh, I hope everything lives!

posted by Steph @ 4:46 PM