The only thing we have done so far is kill the lawn. One more spraying of Roundup should kill all the lingering crab grass, nut grass and weeds. Below are some of the photos I took Tuesday, March 24, 2015.
The photo above shows the largest part of our front yard. We have another smaller lawn area to the left on the other side of the driveway. You'll see that in a photo below. We plan to have some mounds and maybe a stone walk from the left and from the right to the porch. The right side of the lawn will remain relatively flat so that future owners can access the large side yard if they have a boat or RV.
Above, shows the small side yard that will get the same treatment as the large front yard. The trees are Modesto Ash near the fence and Sour Gum closer to the sidewalk. In the photo above, you notice the lawns around us are getting watered. We are only the second house on our circle to do drought tolerant landscaping.
The trees in the photo above will stay. The closest tree is a Pistache tree and the larger one, further away, is a Crepe Myrtle. Here you can see the green lawn of my neighbor on the other side.
Very little green is left in our lawn after the first spraying of Roundup. The photo above was taken from our front porch. The trees along the property line are four Crepe Myrtle and at the very left near the fence is a Butterfly Bush. All will likely stay. We'll let the contractor decide if the sprinkler valves, seen at the bottom left of the photo above, can be reused.
I'll take photos along the way as the yard is torn out and the work progresses. We still have our pool and some lawn in the back yard. The pool does not leak and we'll water the back yard lawn only on Tuesdays and Saturdays as recommended at this time during the drought.
