Landscaping 101

As a way to save a little bit of money on this whole house thing, Cameron decided that he wanted to take on the landscaping.  We had an allowance from our builder, but it couldn't cover everything we needed done if we were to hire out the work for everything.

Well, after some thought, the DIY landscaping turned into "DIY minus the retaining walls," which we had someone build for us.

Then, we decided to have someone put in our irrigation.  Best. Idea. Ever.

But Cameron was still feeling pretty ambitious, and decided to do all the edging, mulch, plants, trees, sod, etc. on his own.

After about two straight weeks of him working every night after work, and most of the weekend (in that sweltering heat wave we had, mind you!), our yard went from this (pre-moving in)...

...to this.

Big improvement, no?  But after this point, Cameron was spent.  And we still needed some sod.  SOOOO...we decided to hire someone to do that as well.  :)

But what happenes when your sod gets installed, and 4 days later you have an epic rainstorm and your yard wasn't staked well enough?  Something like this...

....ummm, yeah.  So Cameron waited for it to quit raining, then went out and, with the help of some awesome new neighbors, got everything back into place (for the most part). 

But what happens when you go outside in Minnesota right after a rain storm at dusk / night time? 

Ouch.  Our state bird, the mosquito, certainly did a number on Cameron.  Yes, that's about 847 bug bites on his back.

But now, a couple weeks later, we now have this...

 A beautiful YARD!  And we couldn't be more thrilled. 

Now here's to not having to do any DIYWSH (Do It Yourself With Some Help) landscaping for a long, LONG time.  :)