I love working outside when the weather is nice, and that means anytime it’s mid 70s or cooler. It doesn’t matter if it’s drizzling or shining, if the weather is pretty, I love to work outdoors in my gardens. Here you’ll find some of my projects that I’ve been working on since I moved into my dreamhouse.

The Grand Entrance

The entrance to my home was a challenge because the ground slopes towards the home, and since water rushes downhill – well, you can get the picture. My father and I decided to tackle this project in October 2014. We started with a blank canvas and staged the garden in sections. There are two Tigerwood “docks” leading up to the main asymmetrical Tigerwood deck. A set of concrete steps also leads towards the dock. These pathways separate the garden into five themes each featuring different colored stones and plants. The black slate “river” leads to two ponds, one that sits at the end and the other on the side of one of the docks. On the other side of the dock, the black slate river seemingly flows downhill along the side of the house in a curvy white rock and black rock garden.

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The 18th-month project required lots of patience as the ground below is basically nothing but rock. My father and I used a 12-inch flat-head screwdriver and post hole diggers to build this entire garden. Since this was before my TKR surgeries in March 2019, all of my work was completed while sitting on my derriere as well as using physics to find ways to move tons (literally, tons) of giant rocks to their locations.

This is a project we can look at everyday and smile about the accomplishments we made and the life lessons we learned together during that time in our lives as we watch the plants grow bigger each season.