My Southern California DIY Front Yard in Bloom

Front yard is blooming right now! Sorry everyone getting snow dumped on them in my old stomping ground of New Jersey and all over the east coast and Midwest. It is a dream come true to be able to enjoy a garden year round out here and I am thankful for it.

Macrophylla Masja Hydrangea  is getting its first green leaves! I seriously can't wait to see the flowers on this one. I hope we love it!

We are still dealing with gophers and weeds despite double layers of weed barrier and 1" of rock.

We are going to get another pallet or so of rock to go up to 2" in some areas and thinking about putting some type of compound in between the flagstones to fight off the weeds a little better.

I know people use stuff to harden decomposed granite for a hard, impermeable surface, but we really like to play around with our plantings, adding and changing things as the mood, or the perfect plant strikes us.

California Poppy seeds took to this spot (as did a bunch of weeds that were easily pulled).

The plants are really happy around these rocks!

I think one of my favorite things is how we uncovered a lot of our neighbor's wall when we did this project. We got to use it to its fullest and it looks really nice with our style. Just not sure what to do about the utilities on the bottom right. I was thinking about gluing rock to it to disguise it...

Here is my optical illusion path. The stones actually get smaller to make it appear longer.

This little area on the left is about to bloom. The miniature lavender is just starting and it is a gorgeous grape color! It is going to look so cool with my Sticks of Fire and succulent with the fuchsia flowers

We don't use any irrigation but this area gets plenty of water because it is at the bottom of a hill.

I just added more Sticks of Fire to cover that strange pipe. I love a lot of the detail and design of our house, but this pipe makes absolutely no sense to me. My plants should cover it up nicely.

Now for the next project...

This one is going to be fun. We are adding a retaining wall and a paver block patio and doing all the work ourselves. We are going to plant some dwarf citrus, possibly, along the property line. We also have an olive tree to put in here, I think.

Once we get this area done the front yard is complete, but this area has been a thorn in our side for a while now. We decided to work the very front of the yard, first, and around the actual house structure before sinking our teeth into this area because it is a little bit hidden from the street.

After the initial quote of $10,000 for a contractor to do the yard, we decided to save the cash and do it ourselves, a little at a time. Wish us luck or contact HGTV and tell them there are 2 fools in SoCal that need some help before they really screw things up on their next DIY project.