Turning a house into a home

We planted a fugi apple tree in honor of Maggie. Michael loves any project outside, so all I had to do was pick out the tree and it was as good as done. By next spring, I'm hoping we'll have some apples Maggie can munch on.

With the planting of this tree, it made us look around our house and realize how much work we've done in one year. We've planted lots of trees, including 4 eastern redbuds (courtesy of SMUD and Sacramento Tree Foundation), a meyer lemon, a blood orange, and an October Glory maple (in memory of my Aunt Kris and a housewarming present from my parents).

Other things we've done outside have included getting the lawns in shape, putting in a decomposed granite pathway near the garden, rebuilt fences, spread out tons of mulch, planted pink jasmine, roses, hydrangea, azalea, a rose-scented geranium and a fern in our flower beds, and tore out a ton of vegetation (oleanders and privet trees) in a part of our backyard we used to call "the jungle".

Things on our future "to do" list: get a patio set, build a pergola over the patio, and landscape the back of the house with drought-tolerant natives.