We admit to making a BIG mistake when we decided to make the area at the back of our new house a grass field, so that our grandkids could play croquet and badminton. The first seeding was torn up by our neighbor's dogs, who romped through the wet turf and seedlings, tearing great holes. The first season was not TOO bad, but the big drought followed; and poor grass led us to discontinue watering the pitiful lawn.
Next plan: We had the area scalped of its unsuccessful fescue grass, topped the scalp with topsoil and fertilizer and waited for our wall guy, M-- , to build a garden wall. In the meantime, we had delivered a huge load of topsoil, which sat in the center of the area. M-- was supposed to come in October, then in November, but we did not see him through the entire winter, during which we gazed at tarp covered pile of topsoil.
We, my husband George, and I, prepared for the newly landscaped area by paving the back portal with brick splits, then set whole bricks in sand out into what would be the walled area for extra seating and tables. There were over 3,000 bricks in all. 
Sometimes we enlisted our grandchildren as brick haulers; we believe in introducing them to manual labor at an early age. We surrounded a newly planted New Mexico honey locust tree with the bricks and planted a honeysuckle vine at the end of the portal, which we had extended the year before. That was ANOTHER mistake, not making it larger when we built the house!
Concurrently, I had picked up some "deals," an arborvitae and a rose that I fought to keep vital until M-- showed up, unannounced, in the spring and built the wall. A colleague of his built a charming fireplace. Now it was time to plant and I thought that I had developed a very nice landscape plan. It was promptly shot down by George and Henry, our landscape guy. They were right.
I had envisioned beds along the curved walls, planted mostly with drought tolerant bushes and perennials. That basic plan was sound but it needed "architectural interest", i.e., berms and rocks. Anthony came for a day with his Bobcat and with the help of Henry’s strong armed men, loads of dirt were put back inside the walls then mixed with topsoil and additives and contoured to create the needed interest. Large rocks bought from one of the roadside Camino la Tierra vendors were lifted over the walls and rolled into their spaces under my direction. I was forced to admit that it looked much better than the flat beds I had suggested.
I was allowed to choose the plantings. Other than the trees, the arborvitae and a clump of aspens which required strong arms, I was also allowed to do the planting itself. I chose spreading junipers, pyracanthas, viburnums, fern bushes and a climbing rose, with perennials plugged in amid the bushes - columbine, lavender, daylilies, gaillardia, etc. The plants survived the late planting fairly well although a Rose of Sharon bush that was to be a focal point along one wall never set out leaves. I replaced it with a Chaste tree.
I used the opportunity of new planting space to thin the iris from my front courtyard and to dig crowded clumps of marguerita daises, and added them to the new space. We planned all along to have a small grassed area inside the garden walls, so put in a new grass called "Reveille," in the form of sod. This bluegrass hybrid requires minimum watering and holds up well in hot weather. A small flagstone patio in front of the fireplace completed the hardscape.
In what was the rest of the big lawn, outside of the garden walls, we planted fruit trees, more aspens, and a flowering red plum. There was already a big clump of Maximilian sunflowers in one corner which had survived the neglect and building of retaining walls from an earlier project. We gravel mulched under the trees.
After this wonderfully wet winter, we supposed that all would be perfect; instead, we lost five perennials and had to replant. The Reveille sod was contaminated with crabgrass and we have had to constantly fight it with a high tech, nasty weed killer. Some cracks opened in the walls which were successfully (so far) mended by our painter/plasterer, Vince, and crew. I planted what I thought were old fashioned hollyhocks next to the fireplace and they turned out to be perennial hollyhocks - too huge for the setting. But they have beautiful, almost black, blossoms, so I'll let them bloom before I dig them out.
Can anything else go wrong? I haven't a doubt! But something exciting was created by the original landscaping error. Our grandchildren invented "Extreme Croquet" when the lawn disappeared. It involves going up rock walls, through sandy areas, and weed patches, over hill and dale. It is much more exciting then regular croquet. Will the projects ever end around here? Did I tell you about the portal we added in the courtyard or the guest house we built? And, I have this great idea for a garden shed that I saw on the Garden Tour. And.........
