Cute house. Is that a baby on the lawn next to the driveway? LOL. I'm not a professional landscaper, but here's my advice from a first time homebuyers perspective who learned the hard way: Lots of great advice here...I agree with starting with soil amendment, then trees, shrubs, perennials / garden in that order, and wait a year before delving into major changes unless you have a pro landscaper. Keep in mind seasonal interest, evergreens and deciduous. Do you want privacy? You can place trees to block views. Do you want a place to entertain and relax? If so, then you can consider a patio in your landscaping scheme. I also perused my neighborhood for similar homes to get a better idea of my likes vs. dislikes, and expanded on that, and I've spent winter months perusing the web, garden books and magazines for a wealth of information. Usually when I did something on a whim, I later regretted it. I have a neighbor who took a beautiful lilac shrub, hacked it down to the ground at 10:00 pm, the night before she threw a party, to "make more room for seating". We couldn't believe it (as this was the last shrub in their yard). I also have a lilac shrub that I later trimmed up into a tree form to make room for a rocking chair underneath, and it's adorable, very English-gardenish, my husband's favorite place to relax...so the moral of the story is my neighbor has regrets, I'm sure, as she later replanted another shrub in the same place. LOL. As far as your veggie gardens, some municipalities don't allow veggie gardens at the front of your home, so it's always best to check on municipal codes. Consider installing a rain barrel. Our community sells them dirt cheap as a recycling program (old pickle barrels), as opposed to the pricing you see on the internet. Your plants will love you for it, and you'll save on your water bill. Our local dump provides free compost and mulch if you pick it up and load yourself. I always check on gardenweb regarding plant selections, and I've always found this most reliable vs. zone hardiness or performance from garden magazines or nurseries. Gardenweb -trees, perennial forums, etc. are a plethora of valuable information, couldn't live without. Fence - get a property survey if no property markers on site. Check with city hall to see if they have any on record. Inform your adjoining neighbors before installing, as a courtesy, they'll appreciate it, and you can also make sure there are no property line disputes. Confirm municipal codes regarding height, permit requirements, material, etc. I wouldn't skimp on the quality as this will add value to your home, and appeal to future homebuyers with kids and pets. I noticed your access to the back yard is via the side door - think about whether you want your fenced area to encompass the back door as well, technically this area is considered the "side yard" and not the "back yard", in which there may be different height or permit requirements, so again, my best advice is to confirm municipal code (our municipality is very strict). As far as visual sensations, curb appeal increases the value of your home. Bricks - I would not get rid of them if they match the brick on your home. Depending on the year your home was built, you'd be hard pressed to ever find them again, and you never know when you might need them. You could use them as a pillar base for a pergola, for example, and it would look like it was original to the home. Just some things to think about. That's my 2 cents worth. Good luck, and most of all have fun. I knew absolutely nothing about gardening or landscaping, and now I'm hooked. I find gardening very therapeutic. Regards, Kim

Bird bones (like chicken and turkey) are lightweight and hollow and will decompose especially in a hot pile. Beef and pork bones, not so much. Some people dry/roast them in the oven and pulverize with a hammer. If you have acidic soil or low calcium it is a good source. I have limestone based clay so I have all the calcium I need and my soil is neutral so I don't work that hard at it, but I put in chicken and turkey bones. Even large quantities of meat can be composted IF your pile is big enough, hot enough and they are buried deep enough. Dead animals have been composted in large piles of sawdust. Just not something you want to do at home. :-] But it will certainly turn to compost, and those scraps you are putting in are just fine as long as you don't have animal problems.

Sir Albert Howard mentions that several towns in Africa were successfully converted to composting all of their waste material, and were so successful that they became models for other areas that followed suit. This was in the early 40's. Americans have come so far since then (not all good) that the likelihood of humanure ever becoming mainstream is probably nil. I agree w/ several others, further up and years back that stated it's not a matter of if, but when something will have to change. Potable water being used in this way is very wasteful. New buildings being built more eco friendly to capture gray water and that being used for toilet flushing, lawn watering would be much easier to sell, and alot more likely. Urine for gardeners like us isn't that big of a step. I think the humanure is a lot tougher sell. Biosolids are being dealt w/ in mostly acceptable manners. Here in VA nutrigreen takes all of the OPBL I can't get to, yard cleanups and mixes them in w/ the biosolids(sludge) from water treatment and make compost. It's not cheap, $5 a bag and I think it said on the bag don't use w/ edibles. I bought one bag last year out of curiosity, It smelled great/earthy. But was chock full of twigs and woody material that wasn't broken down enough. If you are eating local in VA it's likely that you've had stuff grown in this. The website says they supply it to local farmers. I'm sure it's a better deal than the $5 a bag. I think if any one is green enough to have a composting toilet or saw dust bucket great. I can't imagine my dw being ok w/ a bucket in the house. I'm the only contributor of urine to the compost pile and probably always will be, and have to do it in the garage.

Ah, well, it seems I have survived the composting process myself! Anyway, for a cheap source of compostable litter, get 40 lb bags of stove pellets for wood burning stoves. It is about $4 a bag, as opposed to $8 for a 7lb bag of FelinPine®. As for toxoplasmosis, it is not pregnancy that is the issue, per se, rather it is only a VERY small time window (two weeks in the first trimester) during which the disease is transmittable to the fetus, and ONLY if the mother has not had prior exposure. And ONLY if the mother has a new cat, who ALSO has not been previously exposed, because th organism is only present in the feces during a brief window after initial exposure. I.e. it is almost impossible to get the toxoplasmid from cat feces. In fact, a study of the organism had to be scrapped and totally redesigned, because it was based on a sample population of cat owners, assuming they would harbor the organism. Instead, they found that there was no evidence that ANYONE had EVER contracted toxoplasmosis through this vector. Instead, they found that the vast majority of cases (close to 100%) resulted from pica.