#267 - summer project #2

it's nice to have a project always in the works. something (besides tv and naps) to fill the down-times between all the fun stuff, y'know, like on the off-training days or when it's overcast and drizzly and too-cold-to-go-surfing like today. the first half of summer i was working on that video slideshow for my cousin's graduation and for this second half i'm diy-ing my yard.
when i first moved in, i knew that i wanted grass, i don't like it when people concrete over everything, makes me feel like i'm killing the earth and all that other ferngully-type crap (remember that awful movie? brr... i get chills). i don't know a thing about landscaping or gardening or whatever, but i knew i wanted grass and lots of it. unfortunately, i don't get a whole lot of sunlight in my narrow little yard and so the grass wasn't doing so great. i ended up with a lot of dead spots where the sun don't shine (haha) and so this summer my mission was to resurrect the yard!
but since i knew that i couldn't just force the grass to grow wherever i wanted, i decided to do something different in those spots where the grass was dying. so i bought up some bricks, a few plants and decided to make a little rock garden or two. first off, i had to dig up what was left of the grass in those dead areas and man, that was a fricken' butt-monkey-lovin' day of work, dude. i don't think i've ever been sweaty-er in my life. it took me two days of dehydrating work to pull out all the grass, till the soil underneath and prep it for the landscape cover. next time i'm definately going the professional route... because for all that work, it still don't look that great. i mean, i know i'm no pro at yard work, but after all that effort i got lazy at the end and maybe cut a few corners... so my bad, but if it looks kinda crappy at least i can say i did it myself.


so here's the semi-finished product... i've still got to buy some gravel or river rock to fill in the black spaces, but now i've got grass, i've got plants, hopefully everything will be a little more controlled and won't get as hairy as it did before.

plus one more little addition is a sakura tree/plant that my parents won at one of my sister's dance festivals. i don't know how it'll do, but it's from makakilo so it might be okay here... right now it's just in the pot, not quite sure what to do with it... any ideas?