The Path Less Taken....

If there is one thing there is no shortage of around here, it is rocks. They are in the walls. They are in the ground. They are in the holes we dig for new plants. There are in piles everywhere. They vary in size from boulders to pebbles. OilMan and Dana almost rolled a boulder into our living room, moving it down the stairs to put it in the garden at the house level on the right.

I removed a lot of half-dead succulents from a little bed at the foot of the retaining wall on the right. It was full of rocks. The succulents were dying because rainwater runoff from the hill  seeps into it. The question was...what to put into the little strip of dirt? The answer: rocks!

OilMan and I went up to the field which is beyond the top of this shot, and looked around for some suitable size boulders. We found several, beautifully painted with moss, and lichen, but left them there until we can figure out how to get them down the hill.

I took this picture because of the pink rockrose growing at the end of the path, but decided to use it today because it provides a pretty good view of the hill that is a major part of our garden. The big pot in the bottom right corner is actually a fountain and part of what we call our 'mound garden', which was designed in large part by daughter Dana. It was mostly a boggy lawn and a two foot deep spa-like pool which didn't drain properly and didn't make sense, so we had it taken out. It is filled with rocks that we carried back from our walks in the neighborhood, including the boulder that almost wound up in the living room. 

The house is to the right of the shot. and about halfway up the hill. There is a h lawn in front of the house which is about the same size as this hill and stretches from the house down to the street. It is usually dead in summer because we don't water it but don't have the money or the energy to re-landscape with drought tolerant plants..

The path shown here bisects the hill between the agaves and a section of lavender, grasses, and various types of sage. The Japanese lanterns at the top left of the shot are hanging from the arbor we put in on the top terrace where OilMan has his shed and his veggie boxes. This is where he spends a lot of his time. There is a white wisteria which is finally growing over the top of the arbor and provide much needed shade.

There is a flight of 35 shallow steps going up next to the oak trees. We figure trudging up and down these steps keeps us young. Jerry, the tree guy is coming tomorrow to beginning trimming the trees and removing branches which are in danger of falling on the house or the outdoor porch at the bottom of the stairs.

I have written about various parts of this garden over the five years that we have lived here. I hope you enjoyed this little tour of part of it.