Homework: Landscaping Weekend

There's so much stuff going on in summer to distract me from blogging! But not to distract me from getting stuff done.


The blueberries and raspberries have come and gone, but not before I got to share some with Brynn.

A few weeks ago, Mom and Dad came to help with some landscaping projects. Kate had previously helped with cutting down the tree nearest the camera in this first picture, so to make room for the fire pit, we decided to dismantle some of this landscaping.

I removed all the wood chips and plastic, then we pried up all the wood forming the edges. I worked on redistributing some of the extra dirt while Dad used his chainsaw to create a new edge for the now smaller landscaping box.

Dad also helped with some deck repair and used the chainsaw to take down a volunteer tree that had grown for several years. I'd already trimmed as much as I could with my lopper.

Then it was time to start the fire pit. We checked both Menards and Home Depot for the landscaping bricks, and ended up finding much more variety at Home Depot. The bricks available here weren't the same dimensions as the ones Mom and Dad bought back in Iowa, so we had to do some recalculating of our geometry. In the end, I think we bought about 34 bricks--totalling much less than the $100-500 I would have spent on a portable fire ring.

I mostly watched while Mom and Dad did the work. First a trench had to be dug to lay the base ring at ground level. They're smart--the took ease of lawnmowing into account when creating the design. We used the grass dug up from the trench as turf on some of the bare dirt leftover after the landscaping was removed. Making sure the trench and the bricks were level was the hardest part. Below Mom and Dad are using a level balanced on a stake in the middle of the circle to each brick.



The end result looks quite nice.



While we were at Menards, I found a grill at a great price, so I crossed that off the list, too. Who knew a gas grill could take hours to assemble? Mom and Dad worked on it until after dark.




We also got the rosebush trimmed,


gutter extenders installed,


and a light installed in the garage.

With the new fire pit and grill, plus my penchant for running the central air, my house is the new party central among my pals.