The Courtyard

The Courtyard was our first impression of the house--I fell in love as I envisioned having coffee on the front patio, the kids picking flowers. We loved the privacy it offered due to the way the house sits around the courtyard/patio and how large the front lawn is.

A couple of days after the house was completed and we had begun to move in...I noticed how OVERGROWN IT WAS! 

(pic was taken in July, before I went crazy on it!)

So I began to pull weeds in middle of the JULY. I thought it could be done in a couple days. No way!! I had to pull the weeds, dig some of them up so as to not add any unnecessary chemicals, remove all the old and moldy mulch, move the 1 million rocks around, prune the dwarf nardines, cut the sage down to almost nothing, remove plants that were rotten from lack of care and cut the lantanas back as far off the pathway as I could. Then bag all the cutting and old, smelly mulch. Only to lay 2 loads worth of mulch. This was hard work I am sure. Sean was kind enough to do this for me as a surprise over a weekend while I was visiting my parents. (our community offers free mulch and free delivery!)

3 months later its a whole new courtyard. I LOVE IT. I will be adding a few more plants and a climbing jasmine on the left side as well as removing the 2 odd bushes on the right side. But first I have make sure the deer that sleep in our front yard wont eat what I plant.

(The following pictures were taken after all the back-breaking work was finished.)