garden chaos

Let me start off by saying I LOVE my new house. No broken out windows, no busted plumbing, no nests of scorpions hiding in the closet. LOVE IT.

I don't, however, love the haphazard landscaping the former owners installed. A 10 ft gold flame Euonymus beside a 3 ft Gulf Stream Nandina beside a 15 ft Photina. No flow, no style, basically no sense involved. I'm no fan of the west Texas staples of Euonymus and Photinas anyway so they're coming out. A massive shrub rose is hidden on the side of the house that faces another, along with a good sized crape myrtle, and between them another tiny Nandina. I'm yanking out almost everything the former owners put in. Some will be relocated, like the crape myrtles and a few variagated privets, the rest will be stuck in buckets by the side of the road with a sign that says FREE SHRUBS.

I've gone through a few designs for the front of the house, each design becoming more and more Japanese in style. Not sure how that will work with a boxy, brick ranch from 1960, but I think I can pull it off. Azaleas, mugo pines, hydrangea, a bloodgood Japanese maple, and a few golden sedges are on the list. Need to find some stones first though, to anchor it, before I go to planting.

What I really want are a few of these but OMG look at that price tag. I think I can make my own using styrofoam forms and concrete though. Maybe.

In other news, last week the wife of the couple who are leasing my place stopped by to visit, and when she went to leave she did not see Diesel under her truck and ran over him. Broke his pelvis in two places. He's staying at the clinic for a while until I can get a place at the new house set up for him. Had intended to leave him with the sheep but not now. Also, Lucy my teenaged tramp is at the clinic with her new litter of 7 puppies. Yes I know this is my fault, should have gotten her spayed. Anyway, now I have 7 puppies to find homes for. Akbash, Anatolian, Pyr, and half Labrador. What a mix.