Landscaping Phase 2

It's a bit difficult to see, but between the oleander and the driveway is now (mostly) bare dirt and stubborn oleander root system.

I hired a man who lives up the street to work with me and made him sign a contract and agree to some pretty stiff terms as I've been taken advantage of in the past. He showed up at 6 am as agreed, and we began. When I said 10-minute break and water every hour, I meant we'd work for 50 minutes, then take a break. He was dogging it to keep up with me, but I figured I'd better let him know my expectations on day one, rather than count on him to measure up and find out he's no better than any other person I've hired to help me. Believe me, he's earning his pay and praying for the 10-minute break every hour!

At this point, we need to smooth out the dirt, dig a boundary between the oleander and where the rocks are going to go, and put an restraint along the bottom edge of the area that will be rocked. I'm not sure what that's going to be, but I'll figure it out. I need to keep the rocks where they belong and away from the oleander.

So, as Juan and I are working, he tells me about a great piece of equipment I can rent that takes out the lawn as easily as using a lawn mower. Why didn't he mention this BEFORE we started work? He thought he'd earn more money because it would take more time, but when he saw that I'm going to be right there next to him--and I know how to work--he decided that it's not only harder than he thought, but it's hotter, too.

I'm going to check at the local Home Improvement Centers and see how much it costs to rent this piece of equipment as Juan assures me it'll only take an hour to remove all the grass from the rest of the yard if we use the machine. Good thinking, Juan.

Then, we decided that instead of buying rocks and finishing what we started today, we're going to prep the other side of the yard, go to the quarry, pick out what I want, and have them bring in one helluva load of rock that we then will wheelbarrow into place. Makes sense as I could be driving back and forth picking up rock for a dozen trips, and Juan told me I have to load the pick-up each time ... which I'm not going to do a dozen times.

Phase 2 is definitely underway and I'm looking forward to Phase 3 if/when I can rent the machine. Once the lawn is gone, it'll be fun to lay out the rocks and do the desert plantings.

So far, so good.