I have been complaining about the planting bed in the front garden that's right off the front door for a while. Early this year, i finally did something about it. Everything had kind of grown together (and not in a pretty cramscaping way...) And there were gophers and leaves and... sigh.
 |
| doesn't this just scream "welcome"? |
 |
| why do all my neighbor's leaves end up here? |
Now, yes, these pictures are from earlier this year - but like May (after the Fling), long past when I should have cleaned off those leaves. But they did such a good job hiding this:
 |
| i. hate. gophers. |
Leaves cleared off, we end with this lovely view. Once, there was a flagstone path there.
 |
| not sure this is an improvement yet |
You'll note that camilla is tied back. While i would like to say that i did that, it might have been left over from when the house was painted... Poor plant. Clean up continued with digging out the bulbine, eurphoria and other assorted stuff. I also flattened out all the gopher mounds (gopher killing had already occurred a few weeks before...)
 |
| this is fairly narrow bed |
 |
| now the furcraea has some room to breath... |
 |
| along with the red yucca |
 |
| the bed wraps around to the front, with lower mounding plants |
New irrigation was installed. This bed used to get overspray from the lawn (when there was a lawn). While some drip lines were run when the lawn was removed, I don't think it was enough. Hopefully this will help.
 |
| it snakes through the skinny part of the bed, then up to the yucca out of frame to the left. |
Some mulch - rock for where it's super sunny, and shredded wood for the shady parts near the house.
 |
| i also dug out and replaced the flag stone |
 |
| the bulbine got replanted along the house |
 |
| and the euphoria got a new home as well. |
I also managed to make room for some plants that had been in the pot holding area for a while. Some of them might get too big, but that's a problem for later (or a gardening style...)
 |
| looking towards the street |
You can see that this happened before the changes
that happened later - i.e. the palo verde falling over.
 |
| the new view from the front door - much nicer! |
So far, everything has been holding up well. The rock mulch around the xMangave has also help keep the snails away - extra bonus! The changes have held up very well over our hot summer, although the irrigation needs some more adjusting.
