Hello there! I've been away from this blog far too long. Things have been quite busy with a whole mess of life and work changes.The big news is that I moved into a new place. I'm in the very beginning stages of designing the garden here, and wanted to share with you some of the challenges I am facing and what I'm doing to make this place as useful and responsive to my needs as possible. This could take me a while, but I'm game if you are:For starters, the previous occupants planted thorny Bougainvillea next to the gate to one of the side yards. You have to squeeze by it and hope there aren't any bad guys lurking behind it to get into the rear yard. Don't catch your sleeve on the sickly, not even fragrant, and incredibly thorny patio tree rose on the left as you go:If you look behind the Bougainvillea, you'll see a very typical fence which blocks visibility into the back yard (hello again, bad guys!). A friend commented to me that it seemed wrong to block views into what will hopefully become a beautiful side yard. I have to agree! Visibility issues aside, what you can't see is that this opaque fence is nailed to the once charming original fence:Way cuter, right?! yep, I thought so too. and next is that side yard that will eventually become beautiful. Here, what you can't see are all the weed seeds that germinated the moment I moved in keeping me busy indefinitely: If you follow the side yard, you come to the back where there's some lovely painted concrete in reggae colors with teensy tiny meaningless lawns and very old, well established Photinia (one of my least favorite shrubs EVER!). How snazzy is that bit of solid fencing there? I love how it gracefully blocks the view of the neighbor's solid wall. Equally enjoyable is the brick cap on the concrete retaining walls. No lack of design consideration here:Which brings me to the shed. I love love love the shed. It has holes in the roof and sides from what appear to be buckshot so that rain drips directly on the shelf and is rotting the framing. I have no idea what that railing is for, nor why there's a flagpole footing in front of the little railing surrounded platform. I call it the pulpit. The pulpit's days are numbered; same goes for the flagpole footing and little concrete pad in front of it.In the front is an unreasonable amount of purple Lantana and this thing, probably Yucca elephantipes. It will get way too big for that little retaining wall and will break it and start all kinds of trouble in the next couple of years if I don't remove it. Sorry, Yucca, you gotta go.The good thing is that when I go to the shed and look out past the festive reggae concrete, Photinias, and strange tiny lawns, I can enjoy sunsets every night.Here's to resolving the design issues and playing in the yard!