
We bought our house in April 2013. At that time, the grounds were not over grown. My oh my, what a difference 18 months makes! Here are a few shots of the grounds at that time of purchase or shortly thereafter. The appeal to the property, aside from a single level home, was the possibility of a clean slate.

Front view of the NE (left) and NW (above) view of house and front drive Notice how "clean" it looks and how small those cute little bushes are. Aside from the apparent stumps, doesn't look like much needs to be up cleared out. We can just start the landscaping. Keep reading and hold on to your hat!


Also notice the railroad ties. There are hundreds of them! We learned the history of the ties from our neighbor David. The former owner and neighbor David worked for a railroad. They liberally helped themselves to the ties. The landscaping was born! The ties go!
We did not ask our tenant to take care of the "yard" so literally nothing was done from the time he moved in until we moved in. When we drove up in September to park Lucille, the property looked like it had gone back to the wild. I wanted to cry. The "clean slate" had gone wild! So before we can even begin the landscaping, we are digging and pulling the over growth.
To the right is a picture from the street of the NW corner of the front of the property. In the forefront is just a glimpse of how the drive way has washed out.
The NW back corner with a ton of over growth. This is how fast the African Sumac grows and spreads! In the very front of this picture is a small Desert Broom plant. Some of them had gotten over 3' high in the front of the property.
To be sure, we are not trying to clear the entire 2 acres. But we do want to clean out a nice little living space that invites birds and wonderful outdoor living.
To add to the fun, the monsoon season, which was heavier than usual for this year, managed to turn the front area into a river bed. From the positive perspective, I would rather know now that we have to fix the drainage rather than have the newly installed landscaping wash away. It gave us a different perspective on what needs to be done in the front. The challenge is to channel the water without flooding out our neighbors that are on the downside of our little estate. We will certainly learn about culverts and water diversion! And in the meantime be able to channel water to feed the trees and other plants.
Long story short, in a really backhanded way, the neglect of the property is a blessing in disguise. As we are cleaning the slate, we are learning the property. It will certainly help us better design the water diversion landscaping.
More to come!
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