The weather has been glorious and as our front garden will be included in the Vallejo Garden Tour in May, any work we can get done now will save heaps of time later.  The garden is a living illustration of what can be done "after lawn removal" with a focus on perennials and hardy succulents.  

With so many dry warm days in January, there has been pruning of spent flower and seed spikes, dividing and drying cuttings from succulents, dividing Phormiums, laying sand and gravel on flagstone pathways, grooming Bougainvilleas, shuffling plants to "happier?" locations, pulling lots of weedlings (little weeds and volunteers), shovel pruning tired Lavendula spp.  and generally chopping and hacking Euphorbia characias, Echium, and Plumbago.  

But also we taken time to admire the artichoke which is already forming a nice leafy canopy as it is returning to life once again and see that both the variegated Echium and Euphorbia are filling out nicely. Did I mention the Kranz aloe is showing off with beautiful orange spikes, they won't last into spring but they sure bring some needed color to the garden now. 

There is a fun bench project I saw on Pinterest and chairs that need some work, and more plantings as frost becomes less likely.  In the meantime I've got my fingers crossed that rain will return in a few days. We'll see what happens in the next blog.