Backyard Raised bed phase 2

So I have completed the second phase of the backyard retaining wall and planting beds.  This bed extends from the arbor to the pond.  I love the way it came out.  It started a little slow this morning but once I got going, it really fell together.  I picked up 1 cubic yard of scrappings from gardenville...man I just love that stuff.  $5.00 per yard.  

Baxter hanging out on the new planting bed.

Pond...before and after

I have to say that I am more than ecstatic with how the pond came out.  Below you can see the old pond photographed around September 2010 and March 2011.  Then the pond now, September 2011.  It doesnt even look like the same area.

The old pond photographed a week before the re-build.  

The new pond as of September 2011.  The aquatic plants have filled in nicely.  For bog plants I have pickerel weed, sweet flag iris, dwarf umbrella plant and powdery thalia.  For oxygenators, I have hornwort and anacharis.  I also have 2 hardy Lillie's and 1 tropical lilly.  The plants around the edge include nandina, Mexican honeysuckle and asparagus ferns.   

Backyard Raised Bed: Phase 1

I have completed the first leg of the natural rock retaining wall and planting beds.  I know of a neighborhood under construction that has the motherload of rock piles.  Ive been making mutiple trips, filling entire pickup truck bed loads, and I havent even put a dent in the rock piles!  Eventually, all of the mulch beds in the backyard will be raised like this.  It is also going to help when its time to start planting shrubs, in that I wont have to dig in rock!  For the fill, I use Gardenville "Scrapings."  Scrapings are like the bottom of each pile, pushed into one giant mound.  Its dirt cheap...(pun intended) at $5.00 per cubic yard.  I love it because it has a little bit of everything.  Soil, compost, gravel, granite, mulch...it does have some trash in it...i.e. grass clippings and leaves, but for $5.00 per yard you cant beat it!  I got an entire heaping truck bed full for $7.50...(1-1/2 yards, about all my truck can handle.)