Did some landscaping this weekend. The front of our house had these nasty looking bushes that were classified as “ground cover”. The only time they looked good was in the fall when they had red berries on them, which were poisonous, by the way. Not good for kids. So last week I ripped them out of the ground and gave them to our neighbor (she wanted them…I was just going to pitch them).

We went to Lowe’s to look for bushes….boring. Nothing but boxwoods and evergreen stuff. Then we went to an actual “nursery”. Found a nice looking plant, but they wanted $80 for the one plant. Ouch!

Off to Menards! We struck gold there, buying a couple of “Miss Kim Lilacs”, which renewed the heated debate between my wife and I. I pronounce the bush like it is spelled: “Li-Lack”. She pronounces it “Li-Lock”. Thankfully my son is pronouncing it “li-lack”, so there’s at least one other sane person in the family ;-).

We bought the bushes, along with two apple trees that looked good (on sale!). Took them home, realized that we needed THREE bushes, so I took my son back to Menards. Got another bush that said “Miss Kim Lilac” and bought it. Turns out it wasn’t the same bush, it was mislabeled. Oh well. At least it’s still a lilac (we hope). I got up to the checkout, and told the guy I wanted to buy the bush, as well as 50 pounds of mulch and eighty 6″ Belgian cut stones for landscaping (I had a sample stone to show him). Well, after standing in line for 30 minutes (because they wouldn’t open the other register), he then tells me that I have to go inside to get an invoice for the stones and mulch. Stand in another line? I don’t think so. I told him that I thought that was ridiculous, and I was just going to go to Lowe’s.

Went to Lowe’s. We found eight inch stones that were about the same as the Menards ones, but they were eight inches, so I needed 25% less total, and they were nine cents cheaper per stone. I saved $23 by getting miffed at Menards!

Got home, installed the stone border, planted the bushes (located our water meter at the same time ;-0 ) and put the mulch over top. That’s done.

Then I went to dig a hole for the trees. Evidently we have hardpack clay about an inch below the sod. It took me 15 minutes to dig a six inch hole. Gave up for now. Grrr. I think I may have to rent an auger or something. Does not bode well for us putting in 38 fenceposts for a fence. Hmmm.