gardening plans emerging

SO--the area in the front of the house is almost all cleared of the old mulch, and rocks, and that stupid plastic underlayment stuff.

Next step will be to go buy some dirt! Dave priced 40 pound bags of topsoil at the hardware store at about $1.70 each. Not sure how many "yards" that covers. Probably not even one...but 40 pounds is easier to manage than the bigger ones for us old folks.

Then, some time in November, as Thanksgiving starts to get closer, I will go pick out some spring flower bulbs and get them installed in the new topsoil in front of the house.

In back, the fire pit is dug and lined, but we are probably going to be under a state wide burn ban for a while yet. Still in a serious drought, despite the rainy days we have had here and there in the last month. It drizzled for a little while yesterday, then there was lots of thunder and lightening, but only about a half hour of real rain.

We may not be able to have our little back yard fires for a loooong time, but when it's finally allowed, we'll be ready.

There's already a little pad of inlaid bricks in the middle of the back yard. We located the fire pit at the further end of that, and, eventually, our small deck will be at the close end.

We have an estimate in hand for the decking materials, and hopefully, Dave's son and his buddy will be willing to build it for us. It will take them a few hours, and we will pay them in food and beer.

Out in back, I'd like to see 3 oblong garden beds, and maybe a round one between them and the fire pit.

The round one will be set up like a spoked wheel, with sections for different flowering plants and herbs. The three oblong beds will be where I will try my hand once again at having a real garden.

Not sure how that will work if we remain in this drought, but it's been a decade since I've had a back yard and a garden, and I need to at least give it a try.

If it fails because of ongoing, deep drought, I can just eventually convert the garden beds to perennial beds that support drought tolerant plants and prairie plants.