Virginia's garden

A colorful city garden in Redding, Enterprise neighborhood.

SLIDE SHOW WITH ALL PHOTOS

Background story

Due to an old oak tree leaning precariously toward the electrical wires and a wonderfully insistent neighbor who's a retired cement contractor, we transformed our whole front yard in the summer and fall of 2008. The City of Redding's arborist determined the tree needed to come down, which left a gaping spot in our boring, rectangular lawn. Our neighbor urged us one more time to let him help us remove our old cracked driveway and narrow sidewalk and replace it with something with curb appeal; this time we agreed to do the project. One thing led to another and when the big "cat" came to tear out the old driveway, the neighbor and I said "let's take it all out, including the lawn, and start all over." Which we did...we went down to the dirt and redesigned the front with two smaller lawn areas, curving walkways, perennial gardens, and a beautiful new and wider driveway. My husband helped our neighbor and his son pour and finish the cement work, my husband put in a new sprinkler system, we both spread and mixed in new compost and soil, and then we planted lots of new flowering plants. The only thing we hired out was the laying of the beautiful new sod. Three years later you see the results, but as everyone knows, with a garden, you're never done...it's always a work of love in progress!

Virginia.