Progress

I will have to admit I really have made the most of government programs.   I bought the house knowing that I would get 8000 buckaroos back from Uncle Sam.   Thank you very much.   Yes, that money is all spent.   Now I move on to the garden.  We have a growing water shortage, everybody knows that.  And many municipalities have incentives to take away lawn and replace with drought tolerant alternatives.  I signed up online during the FIRST FIFTEEN MINUTES that the enrollment was open.  A month later I found out I was 90th on the waiting list, of course the reason being that you can be reimbursed for up to $2500!

Time passed and I had assumed that the program had been so popular that it was all tapped out.  And then I got my second letter saying that I had 45 days to submit a design. Out it went and I got my third letter telling me that I had 90 days to complete the garden as designed.   Guess what?  That day comes Monday  (procrastinators unite!),  so sunday I will be making a garden in the large parkway in front of the house.

The parkway is often affectionately called a "Hellstrip" for the conditions can be quite hellish.  Here you have a lack of control,  possibility of theft, traffic, litter, dog and cat #$%& (possibly human too in my hood, but that is certainly another story for another time) and so on.

I live on a very wide street which I think is pretty nice to have, and the parkways are like little parks in so much as they are really deep!   My parkway is 11 feet deep and something like 45 feet long.   OK,  so this is what I'm planning:   cool overlapping circles of decomposed granite,   loads of Pennisetum 'Fairy Tails',  Salvia clevelandii 'Winifred Gilman',  Eriogonum giganteum, Cotyledon 'Long Fingers', Verbena 'De La Mina' and maybe some Eschschlolzia.   It has occured to me several times that it would be really nice to have a bench out there too.  I don't want to attract riffraff, but this neighborhood could really use a little love.  So, I think I can stick my neck out a little and set a nice example.

Here is the freshly cleared parkway with materials just waiting to be used.

Of course I will be updating.