Free Backyard Landscaping Ideas
Why did I create this website?

Hi! My name is Stef Erickson, and I'd like to tell you why I created this website about free backyard landscaping ideas. I'll do my best to tell you a little about myself, and what brought me to this point in my life.

As I said on my home page, I don't have a degree in horticulture, and I don't work as a professional landscaper...although I am planning to enter the Master Gardener Volunteer Program in 2009. (I'm really excited about that, by the way! :) Up until now, my professional career has been as a social worker. I got my bachelor's degree in 1994, and my master's degree in 2001. So what am I doing creating a website about free backyard landscaping ideas?

My outlook on life all started to change when I downloaded the audio version of "The Secret" by Rhonda Byrne. I listened to that recording over and over and over again.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this book, it's all about the Cosmic Law of Attraction and how that law affects us in our daily lives. It talks about how we determine the course of our lives by our thoughts and our feelings. It talks about how each one of us deserves to be happy....truly happy....during our time on this earth, and that we can have anything and everything we want if we only apply that Cosmic Law of Attraction in the right way.

Well, I have to tell you, I was ECSTATIC when I heard those words (as were my friends who also read the book or watched the movie) and I started putting the Cosmic Law of Attraction into effect immediately. I felt great! And, like everyone who read that book, I truly expected my life to change within 30 days! (Oh, when I say "change", I mean, I would have all the money I wanted, have the body I wanted, have the job I wanted, etc. etc.....all within 30 days....) Needless to say, it didn't unfold quite that quickly, but I definitely took a turn in the right direction.

The book taught me the basics about the Cosmic Law of Attraction and I then began to learn more about this law and how to apply it to my life. It was exciting, but at the same time, I was learning something that was completely contradictory to what I had grown up believing.

Everything that I had been told, or had been taught to accept as true, was challeneged by this new set of beliefs. And while everything in the book made sense and felt "right" to me, I had to begin working on those core beliefs buried deep down in my subconscious, before I was able to have a significant impact on my life.

Before I became familiar with this Cosmic Law of Attraction I had this deep down belief that life was not meant to be THAT fun....and if you were having too much fun with it, you needed to brace yourself for something going wrong. What I discovered during this process was that life was actually meant to be enjoyed! "Follow your bliss" a saying coined by Joseph Campbell (opens new window), captures how I first started to embrace this new way of thinking and living. I even have a dry erase board on my fridge with the words "Follow your bliss" written on it to remind me every day how to live.

This was a totally new concept to me. What I found was that so often, I was doing what I thought I SHOULD do instead of what I WANTED to do. Or worse yet, I was doing what I thought OTHERS thought I should do! The ironic thing is that as I conducted myself in this way, I wasn't having a great impact on anyone else's happiness, and certainly not any impact on my own happiness!

I had to analyze and modify both my beliefs about the world, and my actions in it. Believe me when I tell you that wasn't an easy thing to do. I had to look at my beliefs about the world, spirituality, relationships, money, karma and personal responsibility. I had to alter my belief that I was a passive player in the world, to one where I actually determined my own destiny.

I started small, and began thinking through decisions that I would make on a daily basis. When I was faced with a decision, I would ask myself, "Is this what I really want?" If the answer was 'no' then I re-evaluated whether or not I should do it! (Of course, some things like going to work, were non-negotiable "must do's" regardless of whether or not I wanted to do them. Oh, and if you've never identified for yourself what you REALLY want, that is a process in and of itself!)

Slowly, my life started changing. It took a little bit of effort though, because I was not used to identifying what I wanted or what made me happy. I certainly wasn't used to acting on it! I had gotten myself into such a rut of doing so many things out of what I thought was "duty." It was actually quite surprising to discover that I had lots of things going on in my life that I really liked, and that really made me happy...I just never identified them as such. When I changed my way of thinking, I started enjoying those activities and the people in my life even more than before! I also got rid of the things that really weren't making me happy.

The Cosmic Law of Attraction indicates that the more I focus on what I want and what makes me happy, the more of it I receive in my life. I started by identifying exactly what it was that I wanted....literally picturing my life the way it would look if I were writing the script myself....and then I wrote it down.

I wrote a detailed discription about what every aspect of my life would look like in my ideal world.....my family, my friends, my contribution to society (in other words, my "job"), my freetime, my hobbies, my financial status, my "toys", etc etc. This helped me define my desires. One thing I know for sure....you can't have what you want if you don't even know what that is!

I used to say things like..."I want to make a lot of money!"....but with my new way of thinking, I had to ask myself if this was really a true statement? Money for the sake of money, is really very meaningless. I didn't want money....what I wanted was the ability to do what I wanted to do when I wanted to do it. I wanted the ability to give gifts to my friends and family when I wanted to. I wanted to be able to travel where I wanted to, when I wanted to. I wanted to be able to make more money in less amount of time, so that I had more time to spend with my family and friends.

So, getting back to the reasons that I created this free backyard landscaping ideas website. When I decided to "follow my bliss" and identify what I wanted in life, I started gardening more! I did this because gardening, planting, landscaping, whatever you want to call it is following my bliss for sure! I usually have to stop digging in the dirt out of physical exhaustion, not because I WANT to stop! It is one of my most favorite hobbies! And so I did more and more and more of it.

Then, I identified for myself that I wanted to make more money in less amount of time, so that I'd be able to spend more time with my friends and my family...after all, isn't that what life is really all about?

I also knew I wanted to be able to benefit from my own creative efforts and hard work. When you have a typical 9 to 5 job, all your efforts benefit the organization you work for, not you as an individual. You may or may not climb the proverbial ladder, and you may or may not support the organization in your heart of hearts. So I put it out there that I wanted to be able to benefit from my own creative efforts and hard work.

Before I knew it, Voila! I was introduced to the world of affiliate marketing! (What I've found from working with the Cosmic Law of Attraction is that when I do the work of changing my beliefs and feelings, and identifying what I want, things start to come into my life in ways that I didn't expect.) I first happend upon a book by Rosalind Gardner, The Super Affiliate Handbook (opens new window). I absorbed everything I could to learn "how does affiliate marketing work." I knew that if I was given enough information and instruction, I could succeed!

Well, while reading that book, I was given information about Site Build It! (opens new window) and that is what has really started to change my life. I cannot say enough good things about what this program has done for me....it's given me the tools that I need to create this free backyard landscaping ideas website step by step, it has answered the question, "how does affiliate marketing work," and it has ultimately helped me to follow my bliss.

I have a wonderful, supportive family, who I'm very close to. You will see me reference them often in this site! I live with my partner, Jeanne, and my dog, Abby, in a 3-bedroom ranch in one of the suburbs surrounding Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jeanne and I have created a backyard that truly is a mini-vacation retreat. We decided long ago that instead of buying a vacation property that we could only visit on weekends, we would create a vacation property in our home so we could enjoy it everyday. We had a pool and a hot tub installed, and we have been working to improve our yard since we bought this house in 2003.

This is where the idea for this free backyard landscaping ideas website came from. It was my belief that so many average homeowners out there have improvements, or fun things, they'd like to do with their yards but don't know where to start. Much of the gardening and landscaping advice you find in books and on the web, is geared towards people with some experience in this area. It's can be overwhelming to the average person who just wants to up the curb appeal of their house, or enjoy their backyard a little bit more.

I wanted to create a place where people could go to find some easy, straight forward information, that would help them in making some basic improvements. I also wanted to create a place that would help others make decisions about features that they were thinking about adding to their yard. Because of the improvements that I've done personally, or my friends or family have done, I have some insight to share that I believe will help others, including what's involved in some backyard landscaping projects, and what may be best handled by a professional as opposed to doing it yourself. What are some of the free backyard landscaping ideas that you'll get from this website?

Free backyard landscaping ideas about lawn care maintenance

Free backyard landscaping ideas about compost making

Free backyard landscaping ideas about pond installation

Free backyard landscaping ideas about lawn-garden tools

Free backyard landscaping ideas about yard plants

Free backyard landscaping ideas about how to repel mosquitos

Free backyard landscaping ideas about safety

Free backyard landscaping ideas about how to choose the right patio furniture

Free backyard landscaping ideas including actual designs

Free backyard landscaping ideas that include before and after pictures

and more!!!

Above all, it is my intention that this website will prove to be a very valuable resource for those who visit it. I thank you so much for taking the time to learn a little about me and my reasons for creating this free backyard landscaping ideas site. I truly hope that this website serves you as a very valuable resource!

Read the amazing true story of how one woman, with no previous business experience, earned $436,797+ in 2002 and now earns MUCH MORE than that ... just by selling other people's stuff online!

In her down-to-earth, sincere and often humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the 'Net.

Frequently revised and updated to reflect industry changes, the Super Affiliate Handbook now consists of 236 pages and 124 screenshots that will show you step-by-step how to become a Super Affiliate. You'll learn how to pick the best affiliate programs, negotiate a commission raise and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate software to web hosting.

To learn exactly how she does it, Click Here.