Checking things off of the to do list. . .

The last month or so we have spent trying to cross off the endless list of gardening jobs.  The recent rain storms made it difficult to get everything done, but we have made great progress.  These pictures are a few weeks old, but you can see our progress.

We were able to get the cement "lifted."  They showed up one saturday morning and were able to get our cement pad lifted by the time the rain storm rolled in by the afternoon.  Concrete lifting is a great alternative to removing and re-pouring cement pads that have settled or fallen away from the house.  The cement company used a jack to lift up our cement pad, and then filled the void underneath the pad with a concrete and dirt mixture to keep the cement from settling again.  I don't know if  the difference is obvious in these pictures, but the bottom step of the right side of the stairs was 2-3 inches taller than the left side of the same stair because of the way our cement pad settled.  They did a wonderful job raising the pad and leveling out the pad so that our stair is even all the way across.  It might seem like a subtle difference, but it is very nice not to trip up the first few stairs. 

We also installed a few pavers to create a walkway through our flower bed.  Our flower beds in our last house were laid out very similarly (to curve around the stairs and main walkway,) except for the fact that we did not include a shortcut through our flower bed at the last house.  We are hoping these pavers will keep my kids/pets/myself from walking through my flowers.
We also added these pavers to the flower bed where the driveway and front walk meet.  We felt like the sidewalk opening felt a little too enclosed, and these pavers allow a little overflow for the sidewalk traffic.  Eventually, there will be plants growing in the spaces between the pavers.
Here is a little sample of the results that come from removing the junipers.  It doesn't look like much right now, but when the bushes get all of their leaves, and the flowers are in bloom the difference with be striking.    We planted two Golden Privet bushes underneath the main window, and transplanted a willowy looking bush from the backyard.  These will help to fill out the flower bed in the next few weeks (as they get their leaves,) and will definitely add depth and interest as the new bushes mature over the next few years.

  As a side note, did you notice how green the lawn has gotten.  There are two things I can attribute it to.  First of all, we have a new fertilizer we are trying out this year and second, we have had a pretty wet spring.  We had a few neighbors tell us about the benefits of getting a load of dirt from the waste treatment facility to use as fertilizer.  From what I understand the dirt is the by product left after wasted has been through a series of chemical treatments from the water and sewer system.  (I realize that this sounds terribly gross, it also has many nicknames to go with it.  My favorites are "human poop dirt,"  "MANure," and "man soil" just to name a few.)  We have used a similar product in the past to top dress our flower beds (this product has bark chips mixed with it) and have liked the results we have seen.  This is the first time we have heard about using the product (minus the bark chips) as lawn fertilizer.  Supposedly you sprinkle one application of the product over the lawn in spring and let it grow.  We have heard that the results are so great that you typically end up mowing 2 times a week throughout the summer so, well see how we like it.  So far it gotten really green, and we have already had to mow twice, so things are looking pretty good.  I'll have to post more recent pictures of the whole project later this week.