Urban Renewal

While our house has its own unique charm -- the small 1940s bungalow type charm -- it has always admittedly been a little ugly on the outside. We bought the house with the belief that we could improve it on both the inside and out, and thus far we have focused on the inside. But with the fall arriving in Monterey we have seized on the even-more-pleasant-than-usual weather, and really gone to work.

You might remember that our front yard looked like this when we bought it:

Not really very pretty, eh? Instead of grass, someone had decided to fill the whole thing with cheap and unattractive mulch. Uncomfortable for our dog, and not really great for curb appeal either.

Last weekend we got to work. We pulled up all of the mulch (not a small feat) filling about 9 garbage bags. We also finished pulling up the hideous white rock which we had started a few months ago, but we went at it full force this time. We used the rock to fill in a void area between the shed and garage in the back yard, which is was way easier than trying to dispose of 75 lbs of rock. Word for the wise: never use rock, especially white rock, for a decorative feature in your yard. Not only does it look tacky, but it makes it very difficult for anybody that ever wants to change it. So after the removal of everything, we did some turning of the dirt to hopefully oxygenate it a bit.
So this is how it sat for a week. We ordered sod online on Monday, a surprisingly easy process, and scheduled it to arrive on Friday. In the interim we had some of the worst rain Monterey has seen in a decade, which turned the yard into a mud pit. Luckily it dried out prior to starting work, but it did make the sod a bit heavy. Speaking of the sod, it arrived Friday morning, and they put it right down in our driveway, ready to go.
We have a fence that surrounds our front yard. It's kinda silly, but it seems every house here has one. In order to make life a lot easier, and since it really needs replacing anyway, I removed a section of fence along the driveway. Before you couldn't walk directly from the driveway into the front yard. But now, we could just walk with the rolls straight into the yard to unroll them.

And unroll them we did. Saturday was the day we had determined would be the most work, but it was a really rapid process. I started with a rototiller, which took all of 10 minutes in our rather small yard, and then we both attacked it with rakes. Half an hour into the work, and we had the first roll down. By three hours, we had a majority of the yard covered and we could start putting edging down. In keeping with the theme of doing sustainable and environmentally friendly upgrades wherever we can, we used a border that is made of a combination of recycled wood, and recycled plastic bottles. It wasn't the best stuff to work with, but it looks really nice in place, and with the sod it was simple. Put the border in the ground, lay the sod on top, and cut the sod with a sacrificed cheap old steak knife.

Finished off with some new redwood bark, and a couple new plants, and the yard went from a sea (or small lake) of brown, to a rich beautiful yard that is seemingly the envy of the neighbors.

Riley will hopefully enjoy it too. Although not until it gets a bit more established.

Turning the soil

When we bought the house, the yard was pretty bleak.

The front yard contained a broken fountain, a tangle of ugly hose and pipes (not pictured), and one scraggly tree, which became even more scraggly and ugly when it was trimmed away from the house, as per our inspection. The tree was not-so-lovingly nicknamed "Cousin It," though my mother also labeled it the "Dr. Seuss Tree."

The backyard was a tangle of weeds, and not much else. (They did take the bucket with them before we moved in.) Quite a bit more green has appeared since this was taken in the fall, but it's mostly crab grass and dandelions.

Over the last couple of weekends, we have put in several labor-intensive hours making some early improvements. This past Sunday was the most industrious yet.

First, we removed Cousin It. We found out it is a podocarpus henkelii and can grow to be very, very tall. Which is bad news when the root system starts out just a couple of feet from one's house. What were these people thinking, anyway? Besides, it wasn't especially enhancing our curb appeal. So out it came.

Instead, in front of the house we planted three camellias (a Pope Pius IX, a Pretty-in-Pink, and a Marie Bracey, if you must know) and a little gardenia in the far corner.

Some time in the future we will add some azaleas to fill in the gaps. Check out the blossom on the Pope Pius though - it's gorgeous!

Doesn't even look real, does it?

We also put in two itty bitty baby citrus trees, a Persian lime and a Meyer lemon. The lemon has some little flowers which are very fragrant, and at least one small fruit. All that, and only two feet tall.

As for Cousin It/henkelii, it was relocated to the back yard, where the root system of a 35 foot tall tree won't upset anything but a run down shed that ought to be replaced anyway.

Behind the tree, you can see some little garden plants peeking out. We planted sugar snap peas a few weeks ago and they are doing fantastically. Every single one sprouted, and they are 3-5 inches high already.

(The crab grass is just driving me nuts, though!)

Next to them we added some peppers. These we started from sprouted plants this past weekend.

There are are few cayenne plants, a serrano, and a poblano/ancho.

The garden plants in the back are doing much better than the ones in the front, also planted at the same time as the peas.

Somewhere in this picture there's carrots, bok choy, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, thyme, oregano, and thai basil. This is an early picture, and there is some growth from just about everything since then, but nothing that looks anywhere near edible. Certainly not the abundance we've seen with the peas, and I may have to try all over again with the herbs in containers. Plus I think slugs are chewing up the spinach and maybe the broccoli. Beer traps are in my future...

We still have tons of work to do before the yard could be called "nice." Eventually we will put sod down in the front yard, replace the fence, add flowers along the front border, maybe plant an orange tree to join the lemon and lime. There are window boxes to be planted, very soon. We'll probably get some tomatoes and squashes when it warms up a bit more, too.

And the weeding. Always the weeding.