A WORK IN PROGRESS

I realized I haven't posted a lot of outside work progress shots lately.  Of course, a few weekends have been washouts, but here is one spot I've been working on.  There is this little half circle of trees in the front yard.  In the above picture, you can see what it looked like earlier this year.  The trees were a little wiry with suckers coming out from everywhere.  There were also saplings springing up all over the ground.  Then there were the bricks from some long ago project, many buried in the ground.  Also, pay particular attention to the area behind these trees in the 'before' picture.

And now below is the progress so far this year.  I've cleaned up the trees and made them look more like, well, trees, the bricks are all gone and dug up from the ground, and I moved a concrete bench from elsewhere on the property to this nice and shady spot.  But notice behind the trees...there you can see how much I've cleared out...all the way to the side fence line (about 3/4 acre).  The only major thing left is that larger Mesquite tree clump on the left side.  That big empty spot will be the site of the future barn.

As for this area, I have a vision for it.  I still need to clean out the grass under the trees and around the bench, then I will put edging around it in a large, circular shape and fill it with mulch.  I'd like to plant some bulbs in there as well, shade loving of course, and two varieties, Fall blooming and Spring blooming.  For any other reason, it would be a nice spot to sit and relax, but I have something else in mind for it to eventually become.

We hate to think about this but it is part of life...we have three cats (four counting the outside cat Gigi) and they are getting older.  Sydney, the oldest, is over 17 now, Brisbane is 12 and Gigi is 11.  Hobart is still a relative youngster of 6.  The day will come however when we'll have to think about this and we feel that having this spot as a final resting place might be a nice idea.  It's quiet, it's peaceful, we'll be able to go out and sit and think and it will be with us forever.  We even thought about future farm pets.  We feel it's better to make these decisions now while we aren't dealing with the stress of the moment.  It just seems like it will be easier to have a place for them ready when the time comes.

Does that make sense?  What about you?  Have you made a special memorial garden area where you are or have you thought about it?  Is it weird to plan for that?  Or is it smart to think ahead?  Share in the comments below.