Landscaping Project - Day One

Today marks the first full day of landscaping work at our home in Torrance. The project began last week when our landscaper showed up to dig up some old shrubs and spray weed-killer on our grass (which just weeks before, I had been trying to coax to thrive). We are excited to finally be able to have the kids play in the backyard as well as dine al fresco in the balmy SoCal breezes (contrary to what I used to believe as a pre-LA resident, the summers here in the South Bay are very pleasant, mild, and quite enjoyable - not at all steamy, hot and humid).

Here is one part of our backyard. Right now, we have one lone tree - a lemon tree that has recently had its branches shorn off (I'll have to get a close up of it another day). The story behind this tree is that I had mentioned to Air Boss' parents that I didn't like the lemons this tree produced since the lemons had thick tough rinds, big seeds, and super pulpy juice which made filtering freshly squeezed lemonade a pain in the behind. Air Boss' parents were so gracious and brought clippings from their lemon tree and grafted them onto our lemon tree in the hopes that this tree to produce juicy limons (half lemons-half limes). The tree is somewhat of a "freak" tree as it now has grafted branches of two type of oranges, a variety of grapefruit, limons and lemons. Right now it looks like a overgrown petrified bonsai. But I digress . . .

This is the view of our very bare back deck. See, no furniture, no shade, no personality. No fun. We're hoping to add a pergola in the back that will give us some nice indirect shade for our outdoor meals. Oh, the palm tree in the pot is probably the only thing growning (other than the freak fruit tree mentioned above) in our backyard.

The photo below is a section of our front yard which I call our "courtyard". Our roof extends over a portion of this which makes it hard to grow anything that requires any amount of sunlight. We may end up throwing down white stones or river rocks in this area. The fence you see on the left side encloses the courtyard. It's coming down along with the white brick wall. Maybe the mailman will now feel inclined to deliver our mail in our mail box which is behind the fence.

Anyway, stay tuned for more photos!