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!