Rosebushes along the fence
I installed approximately 60 feet of fencing along the south side in the front section of my property, the fence, a very heavy lattice construction, basically used to deflect the wind. This area consist of an underground irrigation system which I had installed in the previous year (which extends for some 80 feet, from the driveway back to the Plum trees).
I planted 12 rosebushes of various styles, shapes, colors in groups of three; between each group of three rosebushes I planted a miniature evergreens (5 Dwarf Alberta Spruces) just to break up the color a bit.
The area was also broken up to six groups of watering wells, this was done so the overnight watering would be concentrated in one area and compensate for the varying elevation.
The pictures shows only three months growth, the first set of roses had died during the extreme cold May mornings. The prairie gets extremely cold overnight, no humidity and no clouds to hold the heat in.

Fire break / Brush break
Cleared an area around the entire rear porch for approximately 10 to 15 feet, this buffer zone was considered for two uses the first was to clear the undergrowth bushes and etc. which was over growing support walls and obstructing a clear view from the porch. The other consideration was that in case of a fire it did create a buffer (prairie brush is extremely flammable).
Rented a backhoe to clear out the underbrush, which had root systems there a good 3 inches in diameter, also use it to level out the ground (which consisted of a lot of Sandstone and rock).
Purchased 22 tons of river rock which was used to hinder any future growth of brush.
All the removed brush and weeds were burned and all the rock was used to line my fence line to reduce erosion between the road and fence

Solar System Upgrade
I doubled the battery count to eight, I found that for batteries (800 amp hours) was not enough to power the house overnight. Now at (1,600 amp hours) there is no problem supporting the house 120 VAC requirements. Another set of batteries would carry the house under the day (if we would ever have rain).
Also I increased the solar panels by another four, adding another 1,300 W to the system, which is significant to fully charge the batteries by 10 o’clock in the morning and supplying AC power is required.
I also added two more 120 amp charging units, considering that each block of solar cells develop 95+ amps each (the original 60 amp units overheated)
I developed a new control system that will be able to use the excess power in the afternoon for use with air-conditioning during the summer and heating during the winter (not implemented as of yet)

Heating System Update
The entire house radiant heat and on-demand domestic hot water are powered by the solar system.
Also the entire radiant heat control system was converted from a 5 VDC to a 24 VAC, this was done due to line power losses of a DC circuit, now the entire system runs on a single 24 VAC transformer.
The logic has also been changed to run a single zone onto the return water has reached a preset level, this will force the furnace to stay in the economic zone (takes a bit longer to heat up the first time, but is much more efficient in the long run)

Increased the Attic ventilation
I doubled the attic ventilation by adding two more Whirlybird Wind Turbines, to reduce the attic temperature from 140°F down to 130°F during the summer.

Plants
Another attempt to grow plants in the southwest corner of the rear porch.
By the end of the summer they weren’t looking to get.

Fire Wood Rack
I constructed a simple Fire Wood rack that hold about two thirds of record, off the ground, easily dry out, and easy to access. Simply just used two cinderblocks two 4 x 4 x 8’ and 2 x 4 x 8’ treated wood boards for each rack.