A few years ago when we remodeled the public part of downstairs, we also had two exterior  improvement done. In front, we  received permission to expand the driveway a little to accommodate one extra car. Parking in a gated community is an on-going source of frustration although admittedly, nothing as bad as urban setting. Anyway, one of the first things we did as we waited for the plans on the major pieces was to have a local landscaper come in for the back yard. The guy we use for normal upkeep is good and we’ve been with him for years. Designing and bringing in a team to re-do a yard in one day is not something he can handle. We stuck with the basic concept we had except the landscaper added a wonderful “green island” on one side and cleaned up four trees that were really messy, She also planted two other tall, slender ones that were perfect for our size yard. We even managed to keep up with everything for a while. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the way plants grow around here is amazing and that means good as well as “super weeds” and requiring constant trimming. It simply doesn’t take long for things to get out of control. I’m not talking “jungle”, yet definitely ragged. Despite how much Hubby does, the amount of work we still need to do is a bit daunting and the climbing blossoming vines we’ve had seem to have finally run their course. We did sustain some damage to our fence last year in Hurricane Irma and haven’t had anyone come in yet. The reason is because there was a high demand for fence repair for months and we wanted to let the “rush” get over with.

I’m setting up an appointment with a fence guy and if Hubby agrees, my inclination is to go ahead and tear away the old vines so the fence repair can be done with less interference. After the fence is taken care of I’ll call the landscaper again and acknowledge our neglect. The only good part is the design she did is still good; it basically needs to be refreshed. I also want to talk to her about extra native butterfly attracting plants.