Landscaping . . . again.

I took advantage of a "cooler" forecast today and did a little updating to the backyard. Laura had laid down black landscape plastic a few months ago to kill the grass. All of that came up the other night and black landscape fabric took its place. Then we used some leftover pavers and installed a little walkway from the patio to the raised garden beds.

Today I borrowed my dad's truck and used some "Hardy Bucks" at Hoerr's to purchase about a ton of 1.5-inch river rock. About 90 minutes later I had consumed about a half gallon of water and sweated through my third shirt of the day. (#1 happened when I "weed & feed"-ed the yard at 7 this morning; #2 was at softball practice)  Oh!  But, the good news was the truck was void of rock and the new pathway looks pretty decent. 

Why the river rock?  Well, the droppings from the bird feeders were sprouting and making a mess of the yard.  What else were we to do?  I mean, we can't take away Gus' favorite spot to watch outside.  So, the bird feeders had to stay.  Hopefully we'll be able to suck out the sunflower seed shuckings with the leaf hog every now and again.  Also, we have river rock in the landscaping already on the north side of the house.

As you can tell from the picture there is an empty space on the other side of the sitting wall. 

We have $29 "Hardy Bucks" left and I see another shrub and some tall ornamental grass in our future!