Landscaping on a zero dollar budget

There's a place at our house where no grass will grow. In 10 years of trying we can initially get it to grow in the Spring but by late May it's drying up and withering and by July the ground where it was becomes as hard as cement. Unfortunately it happens to be right at the most utilized entrance to the house, under a couple of huge (really huge) trees. I blame it on the thirsty, shady trees. It's a little embarassing and dry and desolate so we're trying a new approach, the no cost, high labor, throw in some heavy equipment, manpower and lots of time approach and we'll see if we can have better luck.

I spent the better part of my day digging up, dividing and transplanting liriope (fancy word for monkey grass). It has to be one of the most prolific ground covers out there and the perfect solution for us. It's free, it doesn't need babysitting, it grows in the shade, it's green, it'll fill in so no weeds will grow and did I mention it's free?

I love the part in dividing plants where I get to cut them apart with a serrated kitchen knife. I feel like a kid breaking the rules, oh yeah, I'm wild and crazy like that. Someone grab her! She's got the cutlery in the garden again!

Funny thing too, this stuff gets so dense and thick you can hardly tell the spot where I dug it up.

Enter Kevin, making things so much easier with the heavy artillery, and enhancing my view at the same time. I'm a lucky girl.

Even his old boots are my favorite. Look at the toes, we've had to take them in so many times for repairs, they've even replaced the toes on these.

And last but not least, the beginnings of the chicken coop. Look closely and you'll see John helping him push the auger down. A real mom-cringing moment. Watch your fingers!

Finally the layout and an example of one of the perks of being married to a builder. I bet we'll have the most level, square and true chicken coop in the county. Not that I'm trying to one-up anybody, I'm just sayin' the boy's a bit of a perfectionist which is fine by me, 'cause I'm not, well, unless it comes to knitting in which case I'm a total spaz, gotta rip it out if there's one mistake, but this post isn't about knitting (like most of them, ahem) so we'll talk about that later.

Oh and one more thing, I think my favorite part of the day was when we walked in church this morning and a friend said, "I've got 16 eggs I'm going hatch for you if you want 'em and you can have the hen that laid 'em too." He's 77 this friend, he and his dear, sweet wife. I like having 77 year old friends. Life is full of good things if you stop and look at it.