Waterwise Garden Update

I'll take a break from parental pontificating to show off how our garden is doing 1 year since planting.

The backyard: all the vines along the walls are filling in and attracting tons of butterflies.  Our banana palm has quadrupled it's height already.  We love eating breakfast in the sunroom and looking out at the bright red kangaroo paws.  Joe's adult jungle gym gets daily use by him and by the neighborhood kids who love to balance and swing like monkeys.  We added a little ship's wheel to Sisi's sandbox to inspire imaginative play.

Front Courtyard:  I can't believe how lush it is after just one year.  Our passion fruit vines seem to grow 6 or 7 feet longer every month.  I'm constantly hacking them down.  But I adore the wild look we have going on in our courtyard.  Our papyrus is also freakishly huge, and needs to be cut down again.  We hire a skilled landscaper to prune everything every 4 or 5 months, which costs about 400.00 each time.  However, this landscape is so low maintanence that we have no need for regular gardeners.

This is my view as I lounge on the couch with my kindle during Sisi's naptime. It's heavenly. 

I am so thrilled with the investment we poured into our yard.  Hiring a real designer to plan out the space and overlook the installation was a smart move.  It cost us a large chunk of money, but almost everything they planted is thriving, unlike my previous amateur attempts.  As the plants fill in more and more, I totally understand and appreciate her vision that much more.  There isn't one day that I don't say aloud or in my head how much I LOVE our garden and enjoy spending time in it.  Sisi and I spend at least an hour each day just bumbling around outside together.  It's also kid-safe, so I feel totally comfortable giving her the run of the yard while I have alone time inside the house.  She can spend a good hour or two picking flowers, digging for bugs, and watering plants.  It's a mom's dream garden!