Madness, I tell you!

Alright. Although our kitchen remodel has semi-stalled due to Dale's back problems, like a fool I have started yet another project.  It all began when we got a flyer in the mail for a program we'd heard about last year, the Lawn2Garden program here in Long Beach.

Naturally, the part that caught my eye was that notice down at the bottom in green - Receive up to $3000.  Of course, any time there's something like "up to" in the title, I'm skeptical, but I got on the website to check out the details.  Turns out we would be eligible for the entire $3000 - it goes per square foot of turf grass, and that's what we've got in our front yard.  They pay 3 dollars per square foot of replaced grass, and we have over 1000 square feet of grass.  Just to remind you what 1200 square feet of sad, sad grass looks like:

That's the day we closed.  It actually looks worse now.  We knew we were going to eventually take it up, so we haven't maintained it much.  And since we don't have kids or any real use for grass, it's expensive to maintain and a real waste of natural resources.  Out here, you have to pretty much water every day. 

So we are excited about overhauling this, but not so much about the timing.  But I don't want to miss out on the chance to get funding, so we applied and our application was accepted.  Our next steps are to do the online class, then submit our plans.  They do not require a professional garden designer, we can submit a drawing, as long as we use the plant resource websites to list and identify the plants we use. There are also lots and lots of garden plans available online, and we have access to every participants plans, so we can drive around and check out their finished yard, and if we like it, we can see their plans.  Lawn2Garden has a great website with lots of resources.

So we have 45 days to get to our next step, which includes our design.  I'm checking lots of Pinterest ideas, here are some of my favorite images:

 

 

 

 

 

all Pinterest images on my board are here:Ideas for the Yard

 

Of course, all these gorgeous garden photos show gardens that are lush and full, and ours will start out spare and wimpy looking.  Our biggest fear is that our garden will look wild and dry, so we really want to fill out the space, which will take a LOT of plants.  We also have NO attractive features to focus on, it's just a flat, boring space.  So we have to create some drama.  I am looking forward to having a summer project that I can work on without Dale (in case he require surgery or something!), and of course, I am living with a crap kitchen, but these things will work out eventually.  I am looking forward to this planning part of our yard transformation!