It begins (and let's start with a fuzzy picture!)

Tomorrow the gravel gets delivered, and my helpful brother-in-law drops off the compactor. I have to compact the sand before I can lay the gravel on it, and then compact the gravel so it doesn't all run away from me. The helpful b-i-l also called today to say he found someone on Craigslist getting rid of a bunch of flagstone and did I want any. For FREE.

So now I need to compact the sand on the other side of the yard too so I can stick some flagstone over there. It is worth my while to get it done, he dropped off a slab of it today and it is a very interesting light gray with hints of gold. Like shiny gold. I am hoping it will tone down a little over time and be less shiny, but the price was definitely right. I'm also looking at my plants some more. On the flagstone side I want to just stick in some lavenders with some sagebrush and juniper, stuff that's fragrant, low-water and ignorable. On the gravel patio side where I want a firepit someday (hence the above picture), my shrubs are doing well but there is a tendency to purple and spiky (lavender, catmint, salvia, smoke bush kind of), so I want to either stick in some tall fluffy grasses in back, or intermix some bright colors of rudbeckia and echinacea.This just gives me ideas for composition. It won't be quite this lush and full right now as I am trying to plant stuff that will all fill in and get bigger over time. But I love the colors in here. I am on a purple overload and some of these would be just the thing right now. AND I have a coupon that I need to take to the nursery since I am saving all this $$ on my hardscaping...