Sounds more like a take-off on the Zippy the Pinhead comic strip.

Wellspring! I'm speechless with appreciation and admiration.

Maro

And ROFL.

So wellspring, did the slings and arrows of your own dilemma fall into place or did your recent question feel as though you were talking to a ghost in the wings or perhaps a hollow skull?
Rosencratz.

Everyone's mind is in the gutter. Finally, a little company.

Hey thanks, Maro, but it was Bill himself out in his garden who was heard to mutter those immortal words as he tried to fix a seepage issue into his basement. Only later did he adapt it for Hamlet.
Bill was always having trouble with landscape design. A whole tragedy could have been avoided had he just built a higher wall. Clearly Juliet thought it was fine Â
JULIET: How camest thou hither, tell me, and wherefore?
The orchard walls are high and hard to climb,
And the place death, considering who thou art,
If any of my kinsmen find thee here.

And what was Bill thinking when he moved that forest in Macbeth?

Thanks, Ink, for inquiring after my own perplexities. I found the forum exchange extremely helpful, confirming some directions and clearly steering me away from others. I think I understand my own choices better.

As it happens, the on-line conversation unfolded simultaneously with our putting some earnest money into the first stage of the plan. The one modification that the conversation would have helped me with was to restrain my temptation to put a small ornamental tree back into the picture. Once I thought it through, that really made no sense  but the outfit I was working with informed me that I had already contracted to purchase and plant a tree  so there it is.

So  the burm is no more, grass has been seeded, and a tree planted. All in all, even with the tree, it looks far better than before. Regrets? The tree, although it will answer my inner shadow gardener who secretly loves "visiting" new plants in the garden. Also, I'm not much of one for growing grass. Positives? I think it was basically a step in the right direction. I'm looking forward to what comes next.

Oddly enough, the next steps may need to include the downspout, gutter, drainage issue around that low wall. So  at some point I may post specifics.

Wellspring