We left off the yard project with the wee dogwood and the crazy bushes getting ripped out.  I know.  It’s a crime here in the south to kill a dogwood.  You might as well say that you don’t like Nascar or Waffle House.  Note – The entire bible belt just passed out.  But you know me…I am crazy like that.  Just give me some time, I’ll grow on ya…like Kudzu 🙂

So we have our Grand Master Sensei Kick-A plan and we have done some serious prep work by axing a dogwood, some wayward branches and one tall Magnolia.  So what is next?

A little grading.

Yup.  I came home to this.  One hot mess. Enter our hottie redneck friend Eric.  I shall call him Eric the Yard Dude. 

I have known Eric the Yard Dude since highschool.  We go way back.  Not only does Eric the Yard Dude have an uber-green thumb but he is legit.  That’s right.  No part-time yard duding here.  He is part of that exclusive club that involves all the other yard dudes in the world…Eric the Yard Dude is a bona fide Landscape Architect. 

Sorry ladies, he is taken.  And gonna have to suffice as eye-candy…that is, if you can rip your eyes off of his companies website.   Or my header of Jeremy (meow!).  Anyhoo…if you are looking for a good landscape design and consulting person, I would highly recommend him.        

Not only does Eric have know-how.  But Eric has toys.

 The Takeuchi is the yard dude toy of choice in my book.  It has interchangeable heads so that it can turn from a mini-dumper (heehee…I said dumper!) to a ditch digger to a sod hoister.

All he had to do was to scoop and dump the dirt where we needed it so that the yard would be evened out.

 

The blue lines on the ground were his guide.  See em?!  Eric the Yard Dude would use his Takeuchi to grab the soil along the line and redistribute it to the area of the yard that needs a little lift.  Basically if this was a surgeons table, Eric would be Dr. Sloan from Grey’s.  He did the work to make this girl look pickupline-worthy.

But Eric did more than just move the dirt.  He actually had to dig ditches for us because an irrigation system was in our future.  That’s right.  A too-legit-to-quit sprinkler system!!!  I could pee.  literally.  For Jeremy that meant that he wouldn’t have to spend his days and nights watering the yard…and for me, well, that meant a future in being the neighborhood fountain dancer 🙂  Oh the joy!  

During the process of digging the ditches for the irrigation system, Eric the Yard Dude became Eric the Ultimate Yard Dude.  How did that happen?  Well, basically Eric found a bunch of money in the ground.  No kidding.  Not money as in cold hard cash.  Money as in rocks.  “Rocks?” you say.  Rocks.  

As he dug the ditches, Eric uncovered stones…and lots of them.  In fact, there were about $450 of rocks in our front yard.  That’s alotta money honey!  The rocks would account for about 90% of the stone that we needed for our ‘wall’ that would curve along next to the driveway. Girls, don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got…I’m still, I’m still Katie from the block.

   

After the ditches were dug and the sprinkler system installed (more on that later!), Eric went back to shifting the lovely dirt over the ditches and doing some last tweaks to make our front yard more flat and packed down.

 

And now the yard looks like this.  Not too exciting…but this sucker is like America’s Next Top Model…straight out of the shower.  She’s got good bones.  She’s in need of a little sprucing up…but in general, she is gonna be fierce.

Fierce like this nerd.  That’s right.  The galactic Empire wants you 🙂

So there you have it, one ugly looking yard becoming more ugly to become more beautiful 🙂  And one redneck yard dude who took three days outta his busy schedule to help us – THANKS A BUNDLE ERIC! 

Stay tuned for more…sprinklers, and walls, and sod, oh my!  And while you are waiting for the next yard reno update…riddle me this:  What is your favorite outdoor plant?