I've been taking advantage of the recent cooler weather and I am re-landscaping my front yard. See, my front yard is what's commonly known as First Generation Xeriscape, aka two palm trees, and gravel. Lots and lots of gravel. And the icky, gray kind, too, the kind that is only good for driveways.

So I've been carting extra soil from my backyard 'round front, raking up gravel (which I call Gravel Abatement and Removal: Stage One), and laying some extra bricks around the palm tree to make it look less, well, like a relic of the 1970s. And the plan is to create water-harvesting slopes and plant plants that don't need to be watered, like, ever, and then put down the pretty red gravel that looks more natural even though it isn't natural. There will also be rocks.

But I've come to an interesting crossroad at this point in my re-landscape transistion from First Generation Xeriscape to Next Generation Xeriscape: I'm out of dirt. Unless I dig up more from my backyard and create massive holes, I'm going to have to ... gulp ... BUY DIRT.

I mean, I've bought mortar sand before, plenty of times, for loose-laid brick patios and the like. That's different. It's fancy dirt. But I need more actual stupid nasty everyday desert soil so I can finish creating the little hills and slopes that are half-started, and I fear I am going to have to go the way of the consumer and somehow purchase dirt. Next thing I know, I'm going to have to buy air.

Anybody have any free dirt they want to dump at my place? We're talking actual dirt. Not metaphorical. I don't need more of that, thanks.

Oh, and while we're at it, I found this site, TucsonGardner.com. Whoever writes it actually makes fun of people who do not appreciate the natural landscape. I loves me some of that.