As work in the house bogs down, I can always go outside and diddle with the landscaping. Its less of a moonscape now, as the trees and scrubs start to fill in around the margins of the septic field (40' x 60' patch) in the front yard. Tim (the hardscaper) had suggested putting a little water feature in the front yard, but I've had ponds before and they are a nuisance after about two weeks. Algae, bugs, then a rank odor, so we weren't going there. However, a nice
dry creek bed might look good and allow some runoff from the upper driveway to course down through the yard. We already had a bit of a berm going on the left (N) side of the driveway, so we laid out a meandering channel that we can line with plastic and cover with cobbles. Had 5 yds delivered to the ditch in front, so I can foresee a lot of wheel borrowing in the future. We've named it Kala Creek, but I'm not sure if the USGS's Board of Geographic Names is going to approve that (it might be fun to see).
Tim has finished most of the basalt rock walls for now, so we dug the creek bed and shaped the berm a bit more. In addition, we put a berm in front of the garage to break up the expansive view of it. So far, it looks pretty good. All of the trees are in the ground now, and about half of the shrubs are too. Still have to plant the Portuguese laurels as a visual break on the north side, and start laying out the paths (gravel) that will surround the house. Later in the spring (budget allowing) we'll have Tim add a flagstone patio off the sunroom and I'll build the intermediate steps out of Trex to step down off that deck.
