Digging It All Up

Work is underway on one of the items on my 30 Before 30 list.  Item number 26 to be specific - plant flowers in front of out porch.  Although I need to say that this little project has morphed into something just a little bigger than planting a few flowers.  Ladies and gentlemen, we are building a small brick border slash retaining wall.  I don't remember if the idea started with me or with Byron, but we are both really excited about it.  I am excited, because I'll be able to check one of the items off my list and enjoy a pretty garden out my front windows, and Byron because he'll be able to build something really awesome for our house.  I swear we didn't plan this, but in my third-trimester-pregnant state, I'm forbidden to do much of the manual labor.
Last night, Byron was able to dig up most of the sod in the area we had staked out.  Think of these pictures as one part before, one part during.  He was so ambitious that I didn't realize how far he had gotten before I got the chance to snap any pics.

In the end, he cleared out the sod from the entire staked out area.  Then, he simply transplanted it to the back where we had a bit of "repair" work, so to say, all thanks to our lovely little puppy and her supersonic pee.  Gotta love recycling!

We ordered some of these bricks from Lowe's, which are scheduled to be delivered on Friday.

With (hopefully) the help of a couple friends, I should come home Friday evening to see the start of a little stonework out front.  I can't wait to see how it looks!  I'll post more pictures this weekend of the (again, hopefully) finished wall. Then I'll just have to fill the new bed with dirt and start planting.  I'm aiming to find some low maintenance flowers and shrubs, since this whole gardening thing is going to be a new undertaking for me, but I do have my heart set on some forsythia.  I just love the bright yellow.  Good thing I have the expert gardener (aka mom) close by to help me out with advice.  I'll definitely be using it.