Sidewalk Supervising

Things have been coming along well with the house. One of the items scheduled for this week was the landscaping. We knew that we wanted gravel in the front and back yards. We knew that we wanted a six valve watering system with timer. We wanted mostly xeriscape (low water usage) plants in the front yard.


We decided on an ocotillo (also called candlewood), an organ pipe cactus, two barrel cactus, and two red Mexican bird of paradise. We splurged and chose a pink grapefruit tree as well. And that was as far as our pocketbook would let us go right now. More plants could be added later, after all.

Georgia said she would be more than happy to put colored electrical tape around 5 of the black pipe lines as they were put into the ground. The landscaping supervisor understood the idea, but said it bothered him too much to have her doing all of that work. He offered his crew to do the work without charging anything extra. Sold!

Monday morning the landscaping crews started work. Trenches were dug for the watering lines. A small mound was created. Plants were placed. But wait! That wasn’t a dwarf grapefruit, it was a standard one. Fortunately Randy caught that error before it was permanent.

What was Georgia doing all of this time? She was sidewalk supervising. That task included talking with the landscaping crew in Spanish to make sure they understood how the irrigation lines were supposed to be placed, especially for the unfinished backyard. She was also in charge of taking photos of the color coded irrigation lines as they were placed into the ground. After all, someday we may want to get at them again, and it would be nice to be able to find them, not to mention easily identify which line is which.

The last of the irrigation lines was placed on Wednesday (good birthday present for Georgia). The last of the gravel was spread out and raked into place on Thursday morning. One more item checked off the list.

But wait, the story isn’t over yet! Thursday afternoon Georgia received a telephone call from the landscaping supervisor saying they would love to add more plants to the front yard at no cost to us! Never one to refuse something for free, our future homeowners said “Sure!”

Georgia met the landscaping supervisor at the house Thursday afternoon and came up with a plan. The landscaping company will give us one more Mexican bird of paradise, three aloe vera, two low-growing agave, two honeysuckle bushes, a boulder, and a mini “wash” off the existing mini-mound.

Of course the real reason that the landscaping company is doing this is so that people will want to ask who did our landscaping because they liked it. Advertising don’t you know.

Turn the image clockwise and you will be looking at the front of the house. Photos of the final front yard will follow.