DIY Front Yard - A Balance of Nature and Landscape

California Poppies are in full bloom in the front yard and hubby has it 90% weeded out. I had to put in a gopher sound maker which I'm pretty sure is saying "GO AWAY" in gopher and he had to use an organic weed killer that smells strongly of essential oils. I think I bought the Rodent Go Away on Amazon just in the knick of time because there was a rodent beginning to eat my poppies right out of the ground. 

It's pretty tricky to strike a balance between nature and landscaping without hurting anyone, but this seems to be working...

I added a couple small Sticks of Fire and green succulent with yellow flowers in 3 different spots in the front and side. If you want, you could play spot the Olive tree, because it has barely grown an inch (but it already looks pretty heavy with olives). The plan is to eventually put a plant "wall" between us and the neighbors. 

Our 5 year anniversary hydrangea is coming back and looking really fabulous. She didn't do much last year.

My folks brought me back this little round succulent on the right that I'm going to plant right here. I think it will look nice with my colorful combination of succulents already thriving here.

I'm really excited to be able to work out here a little bit now that I'm no longer preggo!

This is the cleaner looking part of the garden, with the river rock, trying to reflect the modern adobe architecture.

This is the more "wild" part of the garden.

So things may be a little "natural" looking right now. I'm going to head out in a bit try to clean up a little more...