100 pavers

my neighbor across the street is doing more work on his house.  so far he's painted the whole outside, redone his driveway, added a raised garden to the front yard.  hubbs and i cam e home the other day to find he's started something with paving stones and river rock.  so far it's looking pretty cool.  and it has some unexpected bennies for me.

i've just inherited 100-150 skinny rectangular paving stones.  so now i have to decide what to do with them.

i could put in a raised garden in either the front or the back.  maybe a flower bed for the princess.  i could wall off an area around the rosebush that just won't die.  i can outline and dig out a new area for the fire pit.  but far more likely, they will sit in my garage till spring.

see we have an hold house.  and once bubby was born, i called the EPA and had the yard tested for lead.  most everything came back just fine, with the expecption of the 'drip zone' and the area that housed my garden. 

but it raised some pretty fundamental questions about how to proceed with our outdoor living space.  the original plan was to turn the back yard into kind of a mini homestead.  a huge garden, compost pile, rain barrel...  the whole nine yards.  we even had a place for honeybees.  but as with every other plan we make, it's fluid and not very likely to happen.  remember Florida?

besides, even if the EPA does come out and replace my entire yard, i'm still going to feel weird about growing food back there.  so from here on out i'll probably be sticking to a container based gardening system.  maybe a couple of those upsideowney things. 

hubbs has been making noises about turning the back yard into a kind of retreat, complete with a koii pond.  i'd like to see another level to our deck.  and as long as i'm asking for the moon, a hot tub. 

but in all honesty, whatever we do will probably be a combination of financially responsible, spiritually responsible, and ecologically responsible.  financially responsible because i'm don't care how cool it is, i'm not going to break the bank for something.  i wouldn't do it if it was inside the house, im not going to do it for the outside.  i'm just not going to spend my money needlessly.  as much as i can anything that goes in the back yard, or the front yard, or the HOUSE for that matter is going to be on sale, or gods willing, free. 

spiritually responsible....  because everything is connected.  the love that we put into our back yard will come back to us when we have our relaxing retreat space when it's done.  we both have stressful jobs, and stressful lives. we need a space where we can just.....be.  and if we have to carve that space out ourselves, it will be that much more meaningful for us.

ecologically responsible.  that's a pretty easy one for us.  were only going to plant things or make changes that will benefit the lives of both us and the ground.  were not going to put anything in there that's going to poison anybody, mother earth included. kind of the whole point of calling the EPA in the first place, you know?

so the pavers will come into the garage, and despite my grand plans, they will probably be put around the outside of the house in a kind of rock garden meets drainage type pattern.  and if there are some left over, princess will get her flower garden.  most likely in the front where there's more sun.

for the back.....i'm thinking fruit trees.  and a koii pond.  i'll be ok with out the hot tub. 


but honey bees are still on the table.