So, I had some help yesterday removing concrete bits and leveling the backyard topography. The goal is to put pea gravel in the path and "conversation areas," and then start planting beds in spring when I have a better idea of light and seasons at this house. My sister and I used some materials leftover from construction to make a winter veggie bed; it is a comfort to have some green in the dirt pit.
And just to get a good idea of the starting point, here's a before shot of the concrete yard at the beginning of the remodel.
And after the Bobcat came through and foundation digging of the back apartment had started.
And that same area now
The bricks are from a planter box that ran along the edge of the concrete and iron rail fence, next to the old staircase. I don't know why, but I love the D'Hanis bricks.
Where the bricks end here, there's going to be a terraced level (necessitated in part by the fact that a strip of concrete still runs across there...plus, I've always wanted a terraced effect in the garden).
And here's some inspiration from Big Red Sun, a stop on this past weekend's East Side Studio Tour. The pea gravel is what's going into the hardscape areas. But I'm also weirdly attracted to their artificial lawn...who knew? Maybe it's the softness underfoot, maybe it's the possibility of going into stage 3 watering restrictions next year.
And I think this might work to shade the parking area next summer...or maybe it's too tough looking.
Anyway, I'm enjoying looking at other yards for inspiration and slowly building my garden plan. And if we can get a few more good rains like the storm early this morning, that would be a cold season gift.
I'll start it off with a bouquet I arranged for a house party this weekend; it turned out much more wildscape than I envisioned at the grocery store, but it's grown on me.
In the ground: some sort of rose, clover, coral bean, nandina, and a lone, seasonally confused cosmos.
In pots: Donkey ear's blooms, cyclamen, and geranium have been blooming for months; autumn sage in front of the veggie garden, and a leggy kolanchoe
For a couple of hours around lunchtime today, several flocks of birds flew into the neighborhood to feed. My cherry laurel had been mostly decorative until dozens of robins and a handful of pushy starlings made it into a whirling dervish of activity. And the possumhaw is pretty picked over this afternoon, with just a few berries left after everyone had their share. A group of cedar waxwings (second photo from the bottom) watched from a tree across the street but didn't venture into the fray. Really an amazing sight to see! Guess it's migration time already.
A whooping crane near Rockport, TX from our family outing Christmas afternoon (I've got many more shots on my illustration blog). And a bulb surprise when I got back to Austin yesterday, just hanging out near the A/C unit.
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