When we moved into our house it had turtles.  Every homeowner does things to a home that makes subsequent owners say “what was he thinking?”  The previous homeowner here took a bunch of dirt and piled it into two mounds on either side of the driveway.  Then he covered them with chicken wire and slate.  We thought they were ugly.

Soon after we moved in, Tom and I were out looking at them and talking about what to do with them.  Our neighbor came over and introduced himself.  He told us that he couldn’t figure out what the previous homeowner’s intention was, but he called them turtles.  They did look like turtles mounded up and covered by slate.  We started calling them turtles as well.

But the turtles didn’t last long at the Hartley house.  We started taking them apart a couple of weeks after we moved in.  We threw away the slate and chicken wire.  Then Tom dug out a lot of the dirt to use around the house.  Once the dirt was closer to the level of the grass, Tom levered the big rocks up so they were sitting on the surface instead of mostly buried.  Then we evened out the soil and planted some flowers.

We collected rocks (we have lots and lots of rocks) and set them around the perimeter of the beds.  Finally, we added a layer of mulch.  The one bed has coreopsis and blanket flower.  We will add a dwarf mugo pine in the spring and some daffodil bulbs after the first frost.  The other bed has some beautiful asters and a couple of blanket flowers and looks done to me.

I was eager to get rid of the turtles and add a little bit of color out at the end of the driveway.  I always think that flowers make a home look more welcoming.  Better than turtles, don’t you think?