On Tuesday, before heading out for the meetup, I was placing bricks for the third and fourth layers of the planter in the backyard. It's close to completion, requiring one more trip to Home Depot and thirty minutes to set in the last remaining stones. After that, it's just a matter of pouring some gravel behind the wall for drainage and filling in the rest with the soil accumulated from digging the trench.

What are the next steps? General grading, weed cover for the rock garden, rock planting, laying out the drip irrigation system (not for the rocks) and then plant, flower and tree selection (a.k.a. the fun part).