The road less blogged about

Since many edible plants are giving up for the summer, I thought I'd post some pictures of other things in our yard. Above is a photo of our second pond, or really the first one Mike built when we realized that the little prefabricated plastic one was too small for our liking. Below is a picture of this area as it appeared in 2003, with only the small prefabricated pond. We built it by removing dirt and plants from the raised bed between the patio and the block wall, and lining the hole with rubber pond liner. If you look closely, you can see  two newly planted one-gallon thevetia plants on either side.

Below is how the area looks today. The thevetia have grown into trees, and we added a prefabricated gazebo. It's much shadier and cooler (and also messier because thevetia are very messy trees!) but a very enjoyable place to sit and listen to the sound of trickling water, watch goldfish swim or birds at play, and smell rose, citrus, or plumeria blossoms.