Digging for treasure!

Do you remember how I told you the HOA where I live was on us about our landscaping?  Well we decided to git 'er dun!
 I am really interested in doing xeriscape style and I'm usually all over doing lots of web research, but we threw all caution to the wind at Lowe's! We bought this tree!

check out that groovy price tag-$29.98!

I had priced trees a few years ago at a local nursery and boy-howdy were they pricey!  I understand that this is because they come out and plant them for you!  Well, heck I am all about DIY, so I thought we could dig our own hole and plant our own tree...

At first I let the men-folk do the work.

They are much neater than I, they cleared away the rocks and such...

We have some crazy hard dirt here in AZ, it was taking forevah!

Then someone had the crazy ingenious idea to water the dirt to soften it up

Then I got in on the act!  Digging is some hard work I tell ya!

Water=lots of mud and only a wee bit easier digging...

I think the hubs and I dug for two hours--darn guidelines about the hole being 2 1/2 times the size of the pot and as deep as the whole rootball!  Sheesh!

Finally we were ready to put her in

We used this stuff to welcome her to her new home

Please welcome our newest addition...dun, dun duuuuunnnn,

Ashley!

Why, yes we named our tree!  Don't your's have names?

She seems to be adjusting nicely and is enjoying her little rock circle.

Aren't her leaves lovely!

She's going to be very big and give beautiful shade!

Oh and here is all the treasure we dug up!

It's hard to tell but there's silicone, cement-with rebar, roof tiles, piping and various random 'construction' items there!

s:)