Utterly overwhelmed....

I've reached the point that I am paralyzed by indecision because I'm so overwhelmed. Sometimes it helps me to write it all down. So here is your earful/eyeful and there is some risk of repetition from previous posts:
( Read more... )

With everything that is going on, I'm struggling to do the simple things, like grocery shopping, dishes, vacuuming, and yard work. I feel weary to the bone and not very productive. I'd like to crawl under the covers and hide for a while, but life doesn't work that way.

Building raised beds

This is the space I have:







I'd like to have a stone containment wall extend from the end of my property in the rose garden where the stones are to the far side of the tree that is sitting in the middle of the lawn. The last sprinklers in the system sit there in the flower beds about 31 feet from the property line. I would, naturally, want to extend the stone around the line of the raised bed. I don't have a pipe to carry water from the down spout to the curb so I'm concerned about making sure water drains away from the house. I want to plant my dahlia tubers in this space so it needs to be 12-18 inches deep. I am hoping to just put down cardboard to kill off the grass rather than trying to dig up the sod. I will also have to work around the water meter/valve that sits in the rose garden.

The problem is, I can't visualize what this should look like. Marian suggested that maybe multiple terraces would help with water drainage. This would, of course, increase the cost and I am trying to do this well but as cheaply as possible.

Does anyone out there have any ideas?