This is our backyard. The original owners of our home were gardeners. When they owned our property, the yards were beautiful, which our neighbors related. However, the people from whom we bought the house did not care for gardening or keeping up the gardens, so the backyard was overgrown to the point of being wild.

A few years ago, we hired a landscaper who had a small machine that he thought he could get up the hill and into the yard. He did a wonderful job working partly from our plans and partly from his own imagination. The wall in the foreground was his idea, the plantings in the back was from our direction.

A year or two after we finished the yard, while poking around a garden center in Colts Neck, we found a cute fountain that was sharply marked down. Unable to turn down a good deal, and always having wanted a fountain, we bought it and set it up, with a little help from friends. It's heavy!

We found out why it was discounted. It wouldn't stay full for even one day. After taking it apart again and examining each part, we guessed that the water was going down the center channel for the pump's wire. After fixing that problem, it's been great!

The dogs like the yard and the wild birds love the fountain. The birds are in the fountain all day long during the hot weather. They use it so much that we need to change the water daily.