Garden Blocks

In yesterday's post, I mentioned sending my man James to purchase garden blocks.  It's hard to look these up online.  Apparently they are called blocks for retaining walls, because that is where I found what I wanted on the Menard's website.  I only had $80 on me--which is an unusually large sum for me.  I had no clue how many blocks he could purchase for that, nor did I even know how many of the blocks we would need in order to edge my flower garden.  The cheapest ones I found online were about $1.50 apiece.  James stepped out the measurement with his feet, so he had an idea, but I wasn't sure.  In any case, he went off with cash in hand in his jalopy truck.

He was gone a long time.  I fell asleep as I usually do at that hour of the day.  When I came to, he was here and had already lined the flower bed edges with the blocks...and had enough left over to line another small flower bed...and even line the front under the new fence!  He had found the blocks for 89 cents apiece!

Please understand that in the 23 years I have owned this little house-on-a-slab, I have personally made those flower beds...and have had, in that time, at least two types of rubbery edging.  The first kind required a little trench, but it all got kicked out by frost over time.  The next effort was with small units of edging that had to be pounded into the ground with a rubber mallet.  That didn't even last as long.  Last winter's cold, along with the mower hitting it, forced it out of the ground entirely.  I am no longer able to tend to the outside of the house, but I have to tell you that deciding to buy those blocks was the best decision I could have made.  They sit on top of the ground.  No amount of cold can dislodge them!  And James's putting them down while I was asleep made it a huge surprise to me.  It looks every bit as good as I'd hoped!

There is, of course, more to do.  The perennial plants need a lot of attention.  That and painting the trim on the bay window are on the top of my outside list...but I'm sure happy with what I have, so far!