The yard again-entropy

http://northhillsquilter.blogspot.com/2012/10/backyard-progress.html

October 2012 we had a new backyard put in.

http://northhillsquilter.blogspot.com/2015/02/trying-to-look-at-positive.html

Feb 2015 I had a guy come in and clean out the overgrown weeds and now look at it.

I guess a yard requires maintenance!   Just like anything else in life, if you let it go, it isn't going to get better, things will start to decay and revert back to their natural state, especially when you live next to an open field where this is what nature looks like.

 I do have a couple of excuses for letting it get this bad.  First, we have been in a drought for 4 years in California, so we weren't supposed to water anything.  The beautiful lawn I had put in started to die from lack of water, then when I did try to water, the sprinklers broke.  I had a guy come out and fix them, but they broke again.

 This winter we had quite a bit of rain and whenever I had the time to mow, it was either raining or too wet to mow.  By the time it dried out, my mower had died.  I tried getting it fixed, but when I took it in to school to have the students in the auto shop work on it, they made it worse.  That's what I get for being cheap.

 So, I bought a new lawnmower, but every time I tried to mow, it would die because it's a lawnmower, not a jungle eater!  Poor thing just couldn't handle the tall grass.  I have a weed eater, but again, it's for domestic use, not industrial, 4 foot tall grass and every time I try to use it, the string breaks and I just give up.  I'm more of a no collar worker who isn't very good at sticking with a project very long if I don't see success.

 The ground squirrels really do love the habitat back here.  Behind this tall grass is a trampoline.  Can you see it?  Neither can I.

 I was so excited about this volunteer fig tree.  It has lots of figs, but then never turn color.  They stay green and then get mushy and fall off.  I don't know if that's a special kind of fig or what, but the birds like them.  I've tried picking and eating them and they have no flavor and are pretty icky.  I was hoping that maybe after a couple of years when the tree got bigger, the figs would figure out they were supposed to ripen, instead of just getting gross, but so far no luck.  I will give it another year before tearing it out.  It does provide nice shade for my sewing room window and the birds make great company while sewing, so there is that benefit.

 This little mandarin orange tree has had a lot of fruit the last couple of years.  I expected it to get about 20 feet tall, but it has been here for 10 years and this is it.  I guess it is really a super dwarf tree and this is all the taller it is going to get.  The suckers on it are taller than the actual tree, so those need to go.

And this is the view of our neighbors.  Can you see the cow way out in the distance.  They come up pretty close to the drainage canal on the other side of the gravel road.  It's an access road for the water treatment plant and a nice walking path when I have the motivation to get out and exercise.  This is where all the weeds come from and where the ground squirrels are supposed to live.  Maybe I should put up a sign.

I think I might need to hire year round landscapers to help me deal with the yard.  I have these grand illusions that I can do it all by myself and then the yard looks like this again.

Stay tuned for the 'after' pictures this afternoon.  I always enjoy watching other people do work.  At least it isn't too hot yet.  It's supposed to be over 100 early next week.