Costco Connection - March 2012

home for your

In March 2011, The Connection invited
members to submit their entries for a
small-space makeover contest, sponsored
by Costco’s garden buyers. Of the hundreds
of entries, here are the first-, second- and
third-place winners, who will receive for
their efforts, respectively, a $500, $250 and
$100 Costco Cash card.

First Place Millie and Lou Kolar Reno, Nevada

BACKGROUND IMAGES: ZOONAR RF AND PHOTODISC

WE MOVED INTO our home in Reno in 2005. The backyard
had “desert landscaping,” which meant sagebrush, rocks and
hardpan for soil.

Over the next couple of years I removed the sagebrush, In 2007 we had a small pond and waterfall added. By 2010 the aspen trees had grown, as had the spruce trees along the fence, but there was an open space between them. When I saw the deer statues at Costco I knew they would be the perfect focal point sitting among the trees. Then, when we placed them, I realized that they really should be elevated to overlook the pond and flower island. That’s when I began to build “Millie’s mountain” out of 30 bags of topsoil and 10 bags of tree bark (and some rocks, of course).