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OMG

I just fell through a rotten wood deck. Can I just say TERRIFYING! I was just waiting for the sound of breaking bone or to feel the rest of the deck give way and plummet 25 feet to the ground. Thankfully neither of those things happened and I am just a bit bloody, bruised and shaken. Another exciting day on the job

I have to find out the name of this tree

The flowers are huge!

back to basics

Today was a great day! I have been hired to remove the front lawn of a house and replace it with a natural drift of native/partly native plants and decomposed granite. This is absolutely my favorite way to work. I went to the nursery and bought a whole bunch of plants: Penstemons, five different sages, tagetes, eriogonum, some aloes and, one of my personal favorites, caesalpinia. I have to admit that I am not sure where that plant is from, but it is seriously cool looking! My Aunt Nancy in Tuscon has a whole row of them in the front of her house. I love them.
Anyway, today we removed the 'lawn'. I used quote marks because there really was not much more than just the roots. It hasn't been watered in a very long time so was yellow. And very very very dry! When I took my socks off when i got home two little poofs of dust wafted into the air. I can't believe how completely dirty I was.
Next week I get to place the plants. That's the second fun part (after the buying part). I know how big these plants get so I know how far to separate them. Also, I like to create islands of plantings so I will place something that gets taller in the middle with the shorter things on the outside. Natural like. I want to create the feeling of walking through the hills of CA.
Here is what it looked like yesterday:


Next week it will look different!