Landscaping Update

We finally are seeing some progress again.  Over all I fairly like it, think there's a few things I'd like to tweak, but I'll live with most of it for awhile and see if I'm still feeling the same down the road.  There is another tree coming in hopefully today that will go in the area about an inch above my shadow in the picture above.  The three closest bushes here are lilac bushes, supposed to only get about 3 feet tall.  I guess I mentioned to our landscaper that I liked lilac bushes, because when I commented yesterday about them, he said that's why he put them in. 

The center island as well as in front of the pillars will all be in flowers.  Our landscaper doesn't plant flowers, he said he's had problems with people letting them die and wanting him to replant them.  It will be a little while before I'm able to get those in.  In the center of the "eye-land" you can see some grasses that he did put in that will return every year and fill in that center area and the flowers will go all around the outside of them. 

This is one of those areas, not totally thrilled with it, though I have a few ideas.  Think I'm going to look for something to go in the center of the lower level, something ceramic or metal.....will just have to watch for something that rings my bell. Of course all this will look a bit better in a few years when the bushes have a chance to grow and fill in areas better. 

I'm liking the big rocks :)

This is a white flowering cherry/crab apple (?) - non fruit producing tree....can't remember what he said now.  I want to say it's the same tree I planted in front of our Twin Falls house and that is a beautiful tree.  Reserving judgment on this area, too.  The rock walls would look much better if there was bark instead of gravel in these areas, there would be a much better contrast in color - and I really like bark (actually soil pep is my preference) much better. But we've watched the yards that have bark up here and it just blows all over the place with the wild winds we get.  I really didn't want to deal with that year in and year out....so rock ground cover it is.  A couple of my ideas is maybe to bring in larger rocks and put into that area around the tree...giving a different texture.  Or....maybe even spray paint some of the gravel a dark brown in various planting areas in the yard....giving the dark color of the bark I can't have.  (Dave will fight me on that one...just watch!) 

Here you can see better the indention where the other tree will go.  It's some kind of miniature willow.

There's 3 more lilac bushes over here too.  They wanted to leave that area flat, because of the boxes there in the front....but I really didn't want any planted areas flat...just don't like that look.  So they built it up and now the gravel wants to fall onto the boxes.  We may have to build some kind of barrier around them. 

Heard last night that they are to come today and prep the ground and sod goes in tomorrow!!

I debated over what to do on the side here.  Finally decided that eventually a fence will probably be between us and whoever builds next door, so this isn't a very important area of the yard, plus it's where the truck drives out from deliveries to the basement of the house so it's always a concern if there are heavy vehicles driving over grass.  Just seemed easier and cheaper to put this area into low maintenance gravel.