Bamboozled

It all started with...

Cat poop.  Years of it turned into hundreds of dry piles collected along the dirt next to the south side of the house (see bricks & water jar below in a feeble attempt to deter).  After cleaning that, we removed the hefty laurel bushes then spent hours/days/weeks digging up the lawn/dirt/roots (with just a shovel!) & collecting rocks from the soil in order to plant new things easily.  The last step was spreading wood chips (double good cause cats don't like to excrete on wood chips). TOTAL COST: $500

The front yard had a wickedly hideous long strip of juniper that was hiding a volcanic rock wall, lots of weeds & trash collected over time.  There was also a dogwood tree (dead, unfortunately) that got chopped. 

Then we washed & organized all the rocks like crazy people & placed the larger ones along the front geometric concrete fence, volcanic rock wall, south side & rear of house.  

 Finally, we got seven 'green screen' bamboos to plant in front.  We'll stager various grasses on the south side & plant a vegetable/fruit garden on the north side in back where the sun hits best.  

To be continued...

And we're back!  October 24, 2016.  The corner tree is down for the count.  It took about 3 weekends of digging & cutting all the roots then finally pushing it over.  A kind neighbor chainsawed the branches off & we rolled the giant root ball out of the hole.  One last clumping (not spreading!) bamboo fills the space.

April 2017.  BAM-boo!