A Work In Progress

I have made it one of my goals for the spring to finally get the front yard cleaned up, trimmed and get a garden in. Not a big garden to be sure, but a few of the things that we use all the time, like green onions and broccoli, and some fun things, like watermelon and snap peas. We'll see - I dream big you know.

But the first part is getting the yard cleared out. This is approximately what the front area looked like when I started:The apricot tree is bigger, though it's lost all of it's leaves this fall. Is that normal? The orange tree doesn't do that. This is the strip by the mail box:

In retrospect I should have had the contractors install a fence with a solid bottom to prevent all the trash and whatever from blowing in from the street. I did not, so there was a lot of plastic to pick up. Still. I felt pretty good about it all. I pulled out the dead bush by the front gate:

Don't know what I want to put back there just yet. Maybe the plant in the dining room that is getting too big for it's pot:

Does anyone know what kind of plant that is? (Yes, Liezel I'm talking to you!) I trimmed all the dead branches out of the California Lilac bushes, which makes it look a little weird, but hopefully there will be room for the new growth in a month or so:

I cut the orange tree WAY back too. The big wavy branch that was threatening to topple the whole thing over had to come out:

(I apologize for the Christmas lights, they're not ours, but they make it into nearly every picture.) The succulents do really well, and I suspect that's because I never mess with them:

This is me, my green thumb is apparently a little bit brown and a little bit blue...maybe some yellow and red too.