orange and pink zebra

Apparently I liked my orange and pink striped shirt so much, that I decided to orange-and-pink stripe my skin too.

This happened when putting in landscaping along both sides of one of the rentals today. I really don’t like bare block walls. These aren’t good photos because the light was poor (the new plants are in the shade and hard to see), but you get the idea.

On this side, we planted things that should get fairly big, in order to create some privacy for the windows, since there is that 2-story house right nearby. We’ve planted scrub oak (a small native tree that slowly spreads in patches), desert willow (also a small native tree), and two butterfly bushes, which are hardy and fast growing. I also plan to buy flagstones to make a path. I’ll just set them in the gravel.

We planted mostly smaller things on the other side, because it has a nice view that I didn’t want to block; there’s no house to the right. This first plant (I forgot what it’s called, I bought it in a rush when I was at check-out and realized if I bought one more I’d get 25% off) Anyway, I recognize it and know will grow to be a small tree. But it won’t block any of the view because that’s the garage on the left. Then further in are lilies, lavender, sage, and a yucca. Those will be visible from the office and the living room. (Obviously, that square bush was pre-existing). This picture’s so poor you can’t really even see the sage and lavender we planted near the gate to the backyard. They’re small, but they will grow well.

This is the second rental. I was advertising it briefly, but it wasn’t showing well. So I took the ad down and we’re doing more upgrades. We just had most of the interior painted, and we’re changing out the stove and refrigerator for nicer stainless steel ones. This is also the house with the low quality laminate, that I’d like to eventually replace with tile.