Magic Tricks

Sometimes, it's really better to begin a story at the end. Contrary to the process of all the great magicians, it's how I typically approach some grand scheme around the house. For me, it always starts with the illusion and then I set to work on all the components. It also helps set The Mister up for all the work that lies ahead for such said scheme. See, getting a glimpse of the final act that will eventually unfold keeps our eyes on the magic, not the twists and turns of the trick itself.

This past Memorial Weekend, we might have pulled off one of our greatest magic tricks yet.

Remember this former plot of dirt clods? Over the course of just several weekends, it had taken shape into what you see above. The original idea was to lay in stabilized DG (decomposed granite) and fill in the entire area. But by the end of last week, we had decided that the area needed a softer look and a little more color. A happy consequence of that decision was that splitting the section up to allow for a greenbelt of sod would also end up being less burdensome on our pocketbook. Win, win.

So we had 2.0 cubic yards of non-stabilized DG delivered and got to work lining all the beds on the property with it - front and back before finally focusing in on the area immediately around the fire bowl. 

Climbing into bed on Friday night, I could barely move.

We rose early on Saturday morning and loaded up on 125 sq. feet of sod, which resulted in a great little trick itself. We pieced it all in and ended up with absolutely zero waste. We couldn't do that again if we tried.

By 10am on Saturday, most of the sod work had been completed. We worked a bit more on the fire bowl that had been installed earlier in the week, but was not working properly. By dinnertime on Saturday, we were fire ready and our landscape design was finally complete. 

Sunday brought a few more feats of magic. The beautiful sod we had laid in was still going strong. I had half expected it to be brown and withering away by the end of day two. But somehow, we managed to keep it alive through the weekend by standing guard over it with the water hose in 80 degrees + temps. 

Additionally, after two seasons of beer spills around the bar, we managed to revive the outdoor carpet on the patio with a little steam cleaning. Magically, it looks as if we just installed it. 

I also squeezed in a little more handwork on the patio awning, which polished it up and readied it for all pool time fun to come.

We were also shocked at how much the plants around the yard came to life once the ground cover went in. Set against both the rocks and decomposed granite, we really saw all of the colors in the garden reveal themselves this weekend, a happy surprise considering all the dirt we've stared at for months and months while we made our backyard landscape plan a reality.