may only exist on the wallpaper in this house.      But we're giving the bijou courtyard a damn good shot.  Thanks to my clever friend Fiona I have a lovely planting plan to work from.  After a good chat with Jose, the landscape guy, I changed a couple of things - Portuguese Laurel doesn't like our coastal air, so we're going to use a vine he likes for our hedging, for example. Jose was worried that the Amelanchier tree we were going to use might not grow in Zone 10,  so we're going for a Palo Verde which has the benefit of being native, albeit not half as pretty as an Amelanchier. But for the most part the plans are unchanged and the plant list is good to go. Concrete is poured and tile has been laid. It took some magic (various extra drains and little hidden supporting beams) courtesy of Ramos Masonry to make the tiles line up and be on the same grade as the kitchen floor. Totally worth the extra effort, because when these sliders are open it...

While the site is rubble and sand, I'm dreaming of a time in the future when I'll be sitting right here with a nice cup of coffee and the newspaper enjoying the scent of my flowering vines. Or harvesting peas and chard. Or hosting a social brunch, or watching Ash grill up a storm. Or planting milkweed and crossing my fingers for monarchs. This vision comes to me courtesy of Fiona, one of my dearest and oldest friends, who normally gets to design much larger and damper gardens in the Home Counties. She might not know California succulents as well as the local garden designers but she knows me better than anyone I could hire here.   Her task is to provide me somewhere pretty to do those things I mentioned. A place to sit and read the paper, eat a meal with family and friends, and grow a few easy crops. We also want scented climbers - because our perimeter wall faces onto a dogshit strewn path  delightful walkway down to the baseball field we are building it high. We want t...