Well, as you can see from my last post, we got through the murder, and life returned to normal, so back to coupons!

The murder, well, teenage road rage, just happened to be at the court house, mid day, with dozens of people and police officers around...one of the kids pulled a knife, and then they ran. Not unusual for city life, but for the sleepy little down with one Main Street, the first murder in 20 years. And having police and news helicopters hovering for hours while every thing was roped off certainly shut the town down for awhile.

Yesterday and today we have continued on the mulch. DH decided (after years of my encouragement) that we should put landscape fabric down in areas without ground cover. Added to the work, looks great. But, it's 91F outside, and we are taking a break. Still lots to do.

Doing some additional trimming and things we have hired out in the past. I'm not afraid to hang atop a 3 story ladder, as long as DH is holding it. And, he's much stronger this year, and can dig out a trench or haul loads much easier.

So, our gardening savings this year, compared to paying for the same (not as good!) work the past three years, is now...

$4500.

Unbelieveable to me, but we never added up ALL the different spring time costs before. Occasionally we've done a small piece of it before, but since we initially did the back breaking work of landscaping, maintenance has been shared with many people with deep pockets. And, since they don't CARE about the quality of work as much as WE do, since we live with it all year, we are doing a careful and better job, especially in areas we know are problem areas.


Ah...if I had a savings category for gardening, this would go into it

Finishing it continues to be our weekly challenge.