More yard work

For all the work we are putting into it, our yard looks like crap.  But it will get better eventually!  This morning we got up early - someone had listed free bamboo on Craigslist and I didn't want to miss getting some.  It was perfect for along the back wall, so we called to get an address and took off.

We went to a house that was completely overgrown with bamboo - it was everywhere!  It's certainly a caution - this stuff will invade everywhere if steps are not taken to contain it.  I wish I'd taken a photo - it was pretty spectacular.  But it was also gorgeous - this is black bamboo, and the stalks are ebony black after 2-3 years, and mixed with the light green foilage, it's gorgeous.  So we brought our shovels and got digging.  A couple of hours later, we had a big pile of bamboo and sore arms.








Then we had to dig through our root-infested yard - the avocado tree has roots that run right at the surface and about 12" deep - once you cut through those, you're fine, but it's pretty exhausting and our arms were already tired!  But we got it done, and we're really happy with how it looks.






After we sat down with cold drinks and congratulated ourselves on how nice it looked, we took a look at the smaller of the 2 avocado trees - and decided to cut that sucker down and get more light in that corner of the yard.  The main avocado tree is lovely and plenty big enough to cast a nice filtered shade over the entire yard - the second, smaller one is just unattractive and creates a jungle in that corner.  Here's what it looked like when we closed (it's kind of hard to see that dark corner) -

and what it looks like today.  We still have to dig up the stump, but turns out that weedy looking tree in the corner cleaned up kind of good!  I don't know what it is, yet, but I think I'll keep it.  (*sigh* -- the grass is completely pitiful).












Oh, and here's some company we had while we worked outside today:
 




We have lots of lizards out there!





Our bird of paradise must not have minded all the man-handling it got when we moved it - all three segments have blooms on them!  The agapanthus we got free on Craigslist a few weeks ago is also looking great.





So, we sat back down with another cold drink and talked about what we were going to do for dinner, and Dale says, "Oh, what the hell, let me get started on digging up that camellia -  and you can check out that stump" so back we went.  We only got halfway done with that last part, though - too tired, so we'll finish tomorrow!  Thank goodness for beautiful California weather --