Home Improvement

Today Ryan and I finished the first round of improvements to the front yard in earnest. Hopefully this year what has for years despite repeated albeit less thorough attempts at greening and flower planting has been nothing but a beautifully walled dust bowl, essentially a glorified doggie toilet area, will look more like a Secret Garden...you see when we moved in the high wall surrounding the front yard was already a lovely shade of indigo purple, and so any plants look lovely there. But alas as the we live in the desert and as the drip system was defunct when we moved in, and we live with two dogs under 5, the prior owners quince bushes and our rose bushes, and our two prior attempts at grass seeding all perished under the mercilessness Southwest sunshine.

Thankfully Ryan was not deterred and focused his efforts the last few days on re installing the aforementioned drip and sprinkler systems in our front yard.

our front yard when we moved in. dirt dirt and more dirtThankfully Ryan was not deterred and focused his efforts the last few days on re installing the aforementioned drip and sprinkler systems in our front yard.

 For my part planted a few pots inspired by the Mediteranien and Moroccan gardens I've been seeing on Pinterest. (The first pics are an example of my inspiration, the third pic is what I actually planted)

I also spend my time resetting the flagstone path between the gates once set my my dear friend and artist Sean Paul Gallegos(Sean Paul on the right, our old friend Rev on the left, second picture my first attempt at the renewed path)

Finally, after we finished the path (in darkness lit by one of Ryan's shop lights, as he was determined to get it done today) we planted grass seed. Now a grass lawn, atleast as one would normally think of it, is a dubious thing to plant in Albuquerque. But since we have such a very small yard, and since we bought such a low water droubt tolerant native grass hybrid, we hope the Earth will forgive us.

in other earth related news, the tulips which I actaully didn't have to plant in the back yard finally bloomed today. My chickens were happy to dust bathe in their shade.
And just a couple more bonus pics...I shot some pictures of the back yard tiki lounge that was our garden home improvement project last year, and thought that those that haven't seen it might enjoy them (or think us nuts)

that's all for tonight. Ryan is anxious for me to get off the computer so we can start part two of the Lord of the Rings saga...hopefully more progress pics tomorrow. but for now, goodnight.
xxjess