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I'm James Maxey, the author of numerous novels of fantasy and science fiction. I use this site to discuss a wide range of topics, with a heavy emphasis on cranky, uninformed rants about politics and religion and other topics that polite people attempt to avoid. For anyone just wanting to read about my books, I maintain a second blog, The Prophet and the Dragon, where I keep the focus solely on my fiction. I also have a webpage where both blogs stream, with more information about all my books, at jamesmaxey.net.

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Sunday, April 15, 2007

House renovation goes external

My house is fairly bland when seen from the street. The landscaping of my yard is best described as minimalist, with no trees, bushes, flowers, etc. Mostly, just grass and weeds. I want to do a few things to enhance the appearance but I don't want projects that require a lot of time, energy, or money, since I'm short on all these things.


My first project has been to install a flower bed along the side of the house. The tricky part of this is, I didn't actually plant much in the way of flowers... just three azalea bushes I bought for 2.50 each from a Kiwanis' fundraiser in a bank parking lot. They were something of an impulse buy. I'd gone out to by mulch for the bed. My budget for the entire project was $20. I knew I needed about $10 worth of mulch, so encountering the bush sale at such a bargain basement price seemed like a good omen.


I'd bought the curvy brick edgers from walmart two weeks ago. They cost about $30. So, the whole project cost about $50, and took about 3 hours total labor. Hopefully, the azalea bushes will do okay. As the summer rolls on, I'll probably be adding some more plantings. My friend Cheryl said she had some free stuff she could give me from her garden.


Any way, here are the before the mulch and bushes shot and an after shot:


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