In June 2002 we had finished giving the pool area of our home a makeover, so we decided to start on the front - a lot bigger task!

(If you want to know who we are, visit our Family page)

First we removed 17 pine trees that had seriously damaged our driveway and completely covered up the front of the house.

I say "we", but really we have Tim Whitfield to thank. He was half the price of the other companies we contacted, and performed flawlessly. I highly recommend him (call 770 664 9716).

We had a lot of digging to do both before and after the trees came down. The trees were on banks of typically hard Georgia clay that I hacked away at with my Dad's hand-me-down spade. For 2 months.

We then turned our attention to the flower beds. As you can see in this shot, they were particularly sorry for themselves.

Actually, they were worse than this. At least here we have planted some new plants.

The work came because we wanted to edge the beds with bricks. Although much easier than my previous digging, it still took a weekend to dig the trench for one side of the house.

But the results were worth it, don't you think?

We doubled the width of the beds.

To lay the bricks is so easy once the trench is dug. Tara laid one side in about an hour. We just laid them "dry". Although I've heard that you can add a little cement to the dirt between them for a more permanent installation, we've never bothered.

Next job is to seed the areas where the banks were (you can see one in the photo above), and plant a new orchard further down the yard...