"Gardening"

I say "gardening" complete with the quotes because...well, we rarely plant anything. And even more rarely do we plant anything that grows. The blossoming cactus pictured below is a freak of drought-stricken nature.

But in the past week we've both been "gardening" ie pulling out the ugly junk that came with the house. Things we never would have planted because 1) not so pretty in the first place, 2) we live in TEXAS state of perpetual drought and 3) we know ourselves better than to think we could have kept it alive.

Saturday I tore out some elephant grass and as you saw, xeriscaped along the front walkway. Today Ross undertook a much bigger task. He ripped out this God-awful bush thing in the front. It took him more than four hours. We had two more of these in the yard that we've ripped out in the past two years so I can attest that if done single-handedly, four hours sounds not just right, but impressive.

In a couple weeks the city of Austin in conjunction with TreeFolks will deliver a free tree to our house. We'll take more pictures then and you can see the full front yard transformation.

Until then enjoy this:

 A Photographic History

The Lone Successful Gardening Project

Rosemary, the family shame, attempted to exclude in all photos
extended more than a yard into the street and at least 9 inches onto the sidewalk

Death of Rosemary

Cactus Garden Birth

Mama's Little Cactus Garden,
all grown up