The Room Outside

When your house is less than 1000 sq ft (959 to be exact) you take your space where you can get it. And since we live in California, we can pretty much use the space outside year round.

Of course, most people who do this have at least a shred of garden knowledge. Me? Well, here's what our house looked like when we bought it in May of 2008:

Front:



Back:


So pretty and lush and green. We tried to keep it like that, honest. But we had a drought that summer. And after a few weeks of frequent watering, we couldn't live with the guilt of expending so much water. So we gave up.

In the intervening months, the backyard turned brown, as most unwatered grass does in CA in the summer, then turned to dirt (with the help of our trusty pup Bullitt and his wild laps around the yard - aka the BT500). The front held on for a bit longer, but eventually went bald as well. Then the weeds moved in and we hadn't the heart (or more accurately the energy) to evict them......

Here's what it looks like now, in April 2010:

Front:

Back:


I know what you're thinking, those can't all be weeds right? Well they are. Every. Last. One. Dandelion weeds. Foxtails. Prickly things with pretty purple flowers. Those flat weeds that look like lettuce. You name it, we got it. Weeds I can grow, actual desirable plants not so much.

We are officially the second worst yard on the block (first place being taken by a house with a lawn of discarded couches, desks and chairs - it's an outdoor room of a different sort).

But no longer! Our challenge, should we choose to accept it (and sometimes we aren't so sure) is to:

1) tame our wild beast of a front yard to enhance curb appeal and maybe start trying to aim for the second BEST yard on the block (just trying to be realistic).

and

2) create a lovely backyard haven where we can rest, relax, have dinner in the evening, and where our now two dogs can run their BT500s without creating a mini-sand storm.