My neighbor's house is built on a "zero lot" that comes right up to my property line. As much as I love them, I am not in love with their wall. This is the view I have from the opposite side of the yard. The bricks make me a little queasy. I think that staring at this wall for too long may cause seizures in a young child. You? This is what I call too close for comfort. The arch covered in Japanese jasmine and rock (?) based citrus grove were left here by the previous homeowners.
So here is the same wall from the edge of my patio. If you look closely, you can spot my dog Tuco right at the bottom of the picture. This is his look out spot. What a desolate sight to behold, huh boy?
Voila! That picked him right up! We moved the boxwood that was obstructing the lake view and used it as a layer against the offending wall. Hopefully it will grow to at least 6 feet tall and make a lovely hedge. To break things up, we added seven Italian Cypress Trees. The yard guy will have to transplant them a little more away from the wall this week, but that's another story. These beauties grow to 30 feet tall, albeit slowly. So we decided to go ahead and get them quite high already at about 12 ft. If you like them sprint to your closest Costco. At the nursery you will be paying $40 dollars for a 3-4 foot tree. Guess how much I paid for those 12 ft wonders at Costco? $39.99. Score!
We had enough boxwood left over to plant around the perimeter of the patio. What is that fence doing there, you ask? It serves a multitude of purposes. It keeps the dogs from playing and pooping in the yard, unsupervised. It corrals my toddler in. And most importantly: It keeps the alligators out. Over beyond on the other side of the larger property fence we have a 9 foot aligator who thinks that's his tanning bed. You can never be too safe around 'them gaters'.
At the end of the growing season I will post an updated picture of this bare wall. Give it a few months and this little area will start to look pretty decent, indeed.
On a tangential note: I cannot believe how expensive patio furniture is !!! Yikes... yesterday we spent most of the morning hunting for some at a local store. After getting over the sticker shock, we finally agreed on a little set. The final reveal on that will have to be saved for a later post.
