Savage Plants & Landscape

It's Monday, so I am back in the saddle of a quiet day by myself in our house...except that we are expecting the team from Savage Plants and Landscape to come and tear up our back yard --which is really our front yard, by the front door, but we think of it as our back yard, because the view (Puget Sound) is on the other side of the house...so we think of that as the front. Silly.

Savage Plants & Landscape is owned by my sister-in-law and brother-in-law (Gregg's sister, Joan, and her husband, Jim Savage). Jim is a real artist with a discerning eye and a passion for quality. It's been a great privilege to have their team work on our yard since we built this house. Jim designed the yard from its beginning, when it was just a lot of dirt around the house. He and his team have returned over the years we've lived here (8 years, so far) to transform one area or another as we have had the funds to do it. Our kids always loved interacting with the crew, and the foreman, Collin, has a great way with kids, so he always made them feel welcome to observe and chat.

They created our path to the bulkead in 2002, out of a messy, steep dirt slope. This made it possible for older people & tiny kids to go down to the beach and enjoy it, as it was basically a slide before the crew landscaped it.
It has lots of twists and turns and is planted beautifully, and we call it "Lombard Street" after the street in San Francisco. These photos were taken right after it was finished; it has grown & changed alot in 6 years. (You can see Katie and our dog-friend, Lily, in the lower-left corner of the photo, with Gregg; the weird piece above her is from another photo. I couldn't bear to "crop" Katie out of it to get rid of that other piece. The problems of photographing scrapbook pages!)

Today, they are going to remove a lawn which has grown half-full of moss, and create a better path to our front door (I know, but is the main door); tomorrow, they will make beds on both sides of the path, and put plants in the beds, making a gentler transition from the yard to the woods, and screening our propane tank.

For those of you with healthy backs and a green thumb, this must sound kind of lame, but I have a "brown thumb," and Gregg has back problems, so we are not going to attempt a project of this sort. I loved Sheri's posting this weekend (Sunday, June 1st), and I wish I could do what you and Joe are doing, but alas! That is not one of my gifts. Maybe when we retire, I can learn those skills...

I took some "before" photos, so we could enjoy the transformation. When they are done, I will take the "after" photos and post the difference here.