Part 2: Follow the Yellow Brick Road

It's finished! Finally!

There was quite a lag there due to some family stuff that came up, but this past weekend saw a finished path! As you can see from the pictures, the last step once all the bricks were in place was to sweep sand (a mixture of coarse and fine grained) into the cracks between the bricks. This keeps them from shifting underfoot and hopefully, will keep weeds from sprouting in between. We'll leave the sand for a few days to fill in some more as the sand settles between the bricks. I'm just so happy it's done!

Look at the beautiful cuts my dad did with the bricks to finish off the edges. Gorgeous!


I am having so much fun walking from the driveway to the house now. I do a little dance every time.

Here's a shot that shows our lavender plants. Haven't they grown?

You can see that the one on the far right is now as big as the other three. It hasn't grown much at all and is kind of sad looking. The color is very dull compared to the others and most of the flowers are dead.


I'm going to do what I can to save it (namely try extra hard to remember to water it), but if it dies, I'll just go back to our garden center and get a new one. Like I said, 3 out of 4 ain't bad! Besides, this is the one that came from the drugstore. Apparently, there is something to be said for the garden center plants.

Also, look how cute my little nasturtiums are in our planter. They are just so quaint. I am especially proud of these because I grew them from seeds. Yay me! I can't wait until they flower and start trailing over the edge of the planter.

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row

You know that nursery rhyme? It's been stuck in my head all day as I look around at all the pretty plants that are blooming. So, I thought I'd pop them up here to record for posterity that I don't kill everything living. Just grass. And houseplants. And possibly one out of four lavender plants.

In the front:

We have these really cool plants on the side of our front yard. They bloom like crazy every Spring with no help from me. They turn brown for the summer and fall and look completely dead (admittedly it might help if I watered them) and then in winter they turn back to green and get ready for spring. My kind of self-sufficient plants!


Our wisteria is done blooming, so no pretty pictures there, but I have been working on turning our porch into the land of the succulents:





Our lavender is doing well. Well, 3 of the 4 are doing well. The fourth (yes, it's the one from the drugstore) is not doing so hot. It's not dead yet, but just doesn't look as good as the others. My nasturtium seeds sprouted too and are coming in so cute.

In the back:

We've got calla lilies - my favorite flower. Best part is they grow like weeds in California. Like weeds! I can grow weeds!!





The big ones were here when we moved in, but this little guy was a housewarming gift two years ago. He and a dog (I won't name names) had an altercation last May and we thought he was done for. Imagine my surprise this week when I walked by and noticed these shoots. Way to go little buddy! The dog in question has since matured and I'm hoping there won't be a problem this year.

These plants (trumpet vines) grow on the other side of our city maintained wall, so we get the benefit of the pretty flowers without having to deal with the upkeep. Score!



And while I may not be able to grow grass, apparently I can grow dogs! They've bloomed exponentially this weekend.

Ours are the two Boston Terriers. Bullitt (top) and Swayze (bottom).





The other two are Luna (black rat terrier) who we are dog sitting this weekend and Maggie (corgi mix) whose dad is here playing House of the Dead Overkill with J right now. Killing zombies is a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We've actually finished the walkway but I waited too long to take pictures today and they were in shade. So hopefully I'll have the completed pictures up soon!