back yard beautification!

Happy July everyone! Well, my month got off to a bit of a rocky start, well, more like Scott's did... Last night Scott had begun digging out a place to put a patio and wouldn't you know it, the last 3 foot section he had left to dig unearthed a poorly poured garage footing. He started laying the patio stones before I was even out of bed this morning (ambitious man, stubborn too, but I digress). While I was getting ready for work he came in and said that he was sorry he messed up the yard. That footing really messed up the way the patio stones lay and without either filling all the dirt back in or purchasing another 100 bags of sand, there was no way it would ever be level. I didn't really have much to say, totally not his fault and I had to get to work, but I knew he felt really bad about the whole thing.
While I was at work, I chatted with one of my co-workers about it and her idea made so much sense to me. Just finish setting the rest of the stones, remove the uneven corner and make either an herb or flower planter box in that corner instead. I could hardly wait to get home, but it was still early afternoon. Anyway, when I got home I found a very sore, very tired, very grumpy man sitting in the living room. After getting home from buying more sand we started laying the rest of the stones (went pretty quick with both of us working together. It reminded me of helping Dad build a retaining wall when I was a kid.
As we were moving stones from the driveway to the back yard Scott noticed a pile of edging stones that he had removed from the yard to dig the patio base and the thought came to him that we could use those edging stones to build tiny retaining wall in the uneven corner. Then, as I was moving the extra bags of sand into the garage, another idea came to me. Instead of building a planting box, I could just level off the lower end of the now empty corner and place a half barrel there, filled with annuals and maybe even try planting some tulips in it to see if they survive the winter. Scott suggested that we fill the rest of that corner with white rock to give the area a more finished look and I could fill it with smaller potted plants next year.

Overall, though the day started a little rough, it was a great start to July. The patio is done and just needs to be swept off to be ready for the 4th of July weekend!