Front needs help

You can see the two front beds and yard look pretty bleak. We have been in a drought situation for some time. The last two days we have received some really good rain. These photos were taken several days ago. I have planted the red pintas in the flower bed beside the driveway. My new rose bush has been blooming well despite the lack of rain. It is suppose to be a drought tolerant one. I have trimmed all the past prime flowers off and waiting for the next round of blooms. See how the grass is practically non-existent in my itty bitty front yard. That is where I plan to put my 4sq. ft garden. I do hope it is an improvement and that I don't get any complaints from the park management over constructing it there. Other people have done things such as totally mulched their front and put edgings up around it. As I look at the photo of the front raised bed I am contemplating doing something entirely different there too. The freeze this winter destroyed my croton plants. I need to remove what is left of them. Perhaps move my crown of thorns pot and do........... something.......hmmm.

Happy Birthday in May

Grandchild #8 is all smiles with his new Carz outfit for his birthday among other things. Grandchild #2 in back with #10 in front of him. The blurr on the right is #3.

Early Morning Visitors

This morning I was getting ready to get in the car to go to work and I discovered the chickens, all of them in my impatiens flower bed! I started shooing them away and then realized I should have taken a pic of them in the flower bed. Ooops! They were already scattering. So I ran in, got the camera and took these shots. I tried to enlarge them so that you can see them better. They were running behind the homes to the east of ours. This gives you an idea of what I am up against in trying to protect my flowers. I thought only the little ones were on this side of the fence, but the whole crew is able to get through the fence. By the way, these two hens with chicks are only part of the whole flock. There is a rooster, and 3 other hens that don't have babies. They keep their distance from the chick brood.

Next project

My plan is to remove the grass which is mostly dead, level the area and place these red patio stones so that the carport is extended to drive one car onto.

I went out this evening and removed enough grass to place about 25 stones but couldn't get the job done. I found that it is extremely important that the ground be level. Very level. I don't have much in the way of tools to do that. I am thinking about using one of my 4ft boards to drag across the area as though I were leveling wet concrete. Then get Bill's bubble level and see if I am getting the job done. The ground is very sandy and very easy to manipulate. But pulling the grass roots up is not as easy. I am putting the weed block cloth under the blocks to prevent weeds from coming up through. I will be laying more than 25-12 inch square blocks but am doing it a bit at a time. Will post another picture of my progress from tonight. I failed to take a picture after I worked today.

More

Close ups of my impatiens and the arrangement around the grapefruit tree.

Chickens

This vacant house is across the fence at the back of our home. Recently we called the police when we saw 3 young boys go in around 8:00am. The house has been vacant for many months. Windows have been left open and I think the inside must be trashed. We knew these boys did not belong. By the time the police got there with a canine and flushed them out the final count of youngsters in the house was about 8 with one getting away. I never did learn what they were doing in there. Boys AND girls. Obviously others had gone in earlier that I had not seen. ANYWAY my purpose for this photo is to show a hen and 2 chIcks in the center of the photo headed for underneath the vacant house. They had been headed for my FLOWER BED!!! They saw me trying to get a picture and ran to hide. They have been scratching in my flower bed unearthing my plants and scattering my mulch till you can't tell where the mulch is. I have enjoyed watching the chickens until now. There are 4 hens and 1 rooster belonging to someone back in that neighborhood but I am not sure they are being cared for. 1 hen recently had about 8 chicks and another 5. So the population grew exponentially. I have noticed that the hen with 5 has lost 2 or 3 chicks by now. We have hawks and other predators that love a tender juicy chick.

Before and after

You can see in the photo with our grandchildren that on the left the evergreens go all the way to the ground and the grapefruit tree limbs hang almost to the ground as well. The other photo shows how I trimmed the evergreens. My trees didn't have any central branches. They spread way out. So they have a bonsai look now but it is nice to be able to walk under them. The grapefruit tree is much neater and the little orange tree on the other end now has room to breath and grow. Perhaps it might eventually bloom and bear fruit. I am assuming it is an orange tree.
Under the trees was bare sand. I thought perhaps since this area is shaded that I might be able to grow impatiens. I have not even tried impatiens before because I have had no completely shaded areas and the sun is too hot for them in unshaded locations. I planted fushia and white mounding type impatiens. I discovered when I watered them that the water rolled around on the surface of the sand just like mercury on a solid surface. I had not brought any soil in to work into the sand. My only solution for now was to apply red mulch to hold the water and absorb it for the plants benefit. It worked.