Update on Lawn Removal

I promised you an Update on Lawn Removal, on how we’re doing.

A panorama shot of the front yard. Only the first island has been planted in this shot.

In June of 2015 we took out all of our front yard lawns and about half of the back yard lawns. If you’d like to take a look at the process, here’s the post with lots of pictures. Some of the process has been slow going, but I suspect that we will pick up the pace in 2016.

The meadow in the front yard is almost complete. We will do a total of 3 islands of plants with a row of purple fountain grass along the property line. Two of the islands are complete, and the third will be a smaller island so it shouldn’t take too long. When those are finished we will put down one more layer of mulch all around the meadow, and then we will probably use a send color of mulch to form a pathway to walk through the meadow.

The plants we chose for the meadow are all drought tolerant. We wanted a variety of colors. And, we wanted plants that flower at different times of the year. So, here’s what we chose…

Front Yard

First Island of plants in the meadow

The first island. It looks small now, but it will grow big and mighty with lots of colors and textures. It’s already attracting lots of birds and butterflies!

Cassia Splendida: tall anchoring tree that will get up to 12 feet tall and has yellow flowers in the fall.

Cassia Splendida

Albany Woollybush: low evergreen shrub, 3 feet high by 7 feet wide, super soft leaves, gray leaves with red flowers in spring/fall (of course, it’s flowering right now and it’s winter), full sun, drought tolerant.

Albany Woollybush

Close up on the Albany Woollybush flowers

Cousin Itt: We love the name! It’s named because it grows straight and tall with green hair all over, looking like Cousin Itt. Evergreen shrub, pale yellow flowers in the spring, full sun to partial shade

Cousin Itt

Orange Rocket Berberis: full sun to part shade. 4 feet high x 1.5 foot wide Low maintenance, deciduous, compact, water wise, heat tolerant, new spring foliage starts out coral in color (bright red), and ages to mild green, turning ruby red in the fall. A great vertical element.

Orange Rocket Berberis

Second Island of plants in the meadow

The second island is the most recently planted. There’s more silver and grey in this island than in the first one, but I love these colors.

Hummingbird Bush (Grevillea thelemannia): anchoring tree that won’t be quite as tall as the tree in the first island with bright red flowers on grey foliage.

Hummingbird Bush (Grevillea thelemannia)

Lavender Cotton: woody perennial, 2 feet tall & 4 feet wide, small round clusters of yellow flowers in early summer, grey white foliage, full sun, drought tolerant

Lavender Cotton

Salvia Marine Blue: grey leaved sage, with blue flowers in summer thorough fall (though again, it’s flowering now and it’s winter), sun or some shade.

I love the way sage smells when you rub the leaves in your fingers. Clean, refreshing, and it reminds me of hiking in the hills in Southern California as a kid and finding all these wonderful things that grew wild out there. When I was in school they told us of all the ways the Indians used the plants as medicine.

Salvia Marine Blue

Lotus Flashbulb, Parrot’s Beak: full sun, low maintenance, trailing, blooms in summer, 4-6 inches

Lotus Flashbulb, Parrot’s Beak

Lemon Thyme

Each island will have creeping lemon Thyme in it to tie all the islands together. The same lemon thyme will be planted in between the concrete squares as well. Lemon Thyme is supposed to repel mosquitoes, and it smells really nice as you walk on it.

Creeping Lemon Thyme

My husband has been working with a program called SketchUp to do artist renderings of the project. Here are some drawings of what it will eventually look like…

This is a great view of the front yard. You can see the meadow off to the right, the deck in the back of the picture next to the house, and the concrete squares in the front left area. The parkway is already complete (read about it here).

It cracks me up that the program has people in it. That’s Dan standing on our front porch enjoying the fact that everything is done in the front yard. Of course, that’s a long way off in actuality for us.

There isn’t much to show in the back yard. Much of the dirt has been removed and leveled. So, I won’t bore you with pictures of that until we get more done out there. Wish us luck! I can’t wait to get more done!

If you still have a lawn, and would like information on repairing your lawn mower, see more here.