Life of Wry

We’ve been without a lawn in our front yard since we added on to our house about 17 years ago. Before that, our house looked like this:

(I should have removed that staple before I scanned it, huh?)

Big Modesto ash in the center, which sat in a large raised boulder-bound bed, a lawn surrounded by shrubs, flowers and three large podocarpus… it was very shady and lovely. (And the house was avocado green!)

Redwood Bard designed the initial re-vamp. The most enduring feature is the terrace that they created with those boulders. In the years since, we’ve gone through numerous different planting schemes. We’ve had various kinds of gardens, including an extensive vegetable and herb garden. We’ve planted and removed a few trees, too. Now the yard is grassless. It’s STILL a work in progress, but for now looks like this:

Here’s a bit of detail:

I only bring this up because we are considering removing the lawn in our backyard now. It’s tiny but a real yard enhancer… if ya like lawn (which I do).

The idea I had was to remove the lawn and put our soon-to-be-built raised stone bed in its place. Originally, the raised bed was going to go in the back near where all the snow in summer are blooming right now. Not as visible, not as accessible.

Plus, drought being what it is, we really ought to remove the lawn anyway.

What to do, what to do…