I Want To Hire This Guy

I've been getting a kick out of seeing my youngest son become a gardener and home landscaper over the past couple years. He has a tiny 1898 rehabbed bungalow in Denver, right in the city. It came with a yard -- not much of one, but it's his own and it's fenced in and private. 

He asked for my help to get it planted up, and I have enjoyed working with him to select plants and get them in. But then he surprised me by learning all about what was planted, getting familiar with botanical names, moving things around, and designing the little space. He became a gardener. A real one, with bona fides.

And now he is a stonemason.

On his own, during pandemic lockdown, with no help at all and only YouTube videos for instruction, he built a stone walkway. And he did it right, with accurate dimensions, the appropriate base, level and true installation, and an eye for proportions.

Over the gate he put in a metal arbor and then he went shopping at the nursery and found a Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle vine to plant next to it to eventually climb up and over it. Outside the gate he built shallow steps down to the sidewalk.

It's all pretty impressive for an amateur first time stone layer. I'd hire this guy in a minute.

He's pleased with it, but says he isn't finished. The pavers need a cement sealer that will bring out the color and protect them. He's got plants going in next to the wall of the steps in the white creek rock there. He has plans, more plans. 

That's how you know he's a real gardener now -- he's not even close to being finished.