Yard Tour - Part 1

This March will mark our five year anniversary of living in this house, and around that time I hope to post some before and after pictures of the yard and how it's grown during that span.

In the meantime, I'm going to be posting pictures of each section of the yard, and with today being overcast, ironically it was the perfect time to take these (without the glare of the sun).

This first part of the tour is focusing on the south side of the house, which gets hammered by the summer sun, except near the end of that season where the house actually shades the plants in the late afternoon (due to the sun setting so far to the north).

Below is my humble attempt at an herb garden. Hopefully when it gets warmer, the mesquite tree here will shade these plants sufficiently.

To the right of the herb garden is a raised planter that has changed from year to year. The bottom tier is pretty well finished, with a Pepper Tree, golden emu bush, and indian mallow bush from left to right. I think I finally have some plants in the top tier that can survive the summer, a hopseed bush, jujube tree, and some globe mallows.

Heading back to the corner of the south side of the yard, I've planted lots of bulbs to the right amongst the yellow bell bushes, and to the left are my orange jubilee bushes that have been there since we first moved in five years ago. I recently hacked the top two to three feet off each of those bushes, hoping to reinvigorate the growth near the bottom of the plants, come springtime.

At the end of this arch is my lady fountain that I found at Kmart (yep, Kmart, they're not good for much, but I got lucky here) about three years ago. I only run this fountain in the late fall/early spring when we have the dining room window open, where we can hear it running.

Here is a wider shot of the fountain area, complete with two lounge chairs that were supposed to be weather resistant, and after a year are already splitting from the sun. Thanks Home Depot, you rock.

Finally, a look back down the path we just came by.