Landscaping for Dummies

As many of you know, Ronnie and I moved into our first home when we got married. We've posted a few photos, and I know we've raved about the yard. Our backyard is like a little oasis in the middle of the desert; grass, green, plants...the works. It is so wonderful....until you have to try to keep it alive in July, in the desert, when you're a landscaping moron.

Ronnie has been doing a great job. Using well over what environmentalists would consider our share of water, Ronnie's successfully kept the yard alive with gallons upon, gallons of it. The plan so far has been: water it, mow it, and hope that everything lives. The plan has worked well for the most part. The grass is green. And (most) of the plants are still living.

Last night, we decided to move from just mowing and watering and tried to tackle hedge trimming. I'm sure our neighbors watched in disbelief as tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum haphazardly cut back the bushes in our front yard. At one point, I realized I was cutting a bush without even really watching where/how I was cutting....it was at that point I realized we probably should have waited til it was even darker, so no one could witness this embarrassing attempt at landscaping. Most of the time Ronnie was using the hedge trimmers, he was laughing. "How's this?" he'd ask. "I have no idea," I'd respond. Talk about the blind leading the blind. I'm sure neighbors cringed as I'd bend down to pick up the debris, with my face just inches from where Ronnie was throwing around the hedge trimmer - talk about trust....or stupidity!

Anyways, after a few hours of cutting, raking, pulling and picking up, the yard does look better...in our opinion (I'm sure landscapers across the country would laugh at the shape of some of our bushes).

So here's to learning curves and giving it a good old college try. Anyone have any landscaping tips or horror stories for us?? Help us out or at least make us feel better by telling us how badly you stunk before you got the hang of it!