Did I mention that I hate grass? My grass eradication program has been ongoing since 1972, when I first dug out grass in another life in Grants Pass. I've been steadily removing sod all these years...if I had a dime for every square foot of stupid green stuff I've shoveled out...I even got an interview and write up in the Mail Tribune gardening section about removing sod when I moved to Medford in 1987. I was just ahead of my time, I guess. So I've wised up in recent times and instead of digging out sod, I just cover it over with good quality landscape fabric...the stuff that comes in rolls that you can buy at the garden centers. On top of that goes yards of small gravel...used to use pea gravel but have recently discovered "quarter by ten" which is about the size of pea gravel but angular so it compacts. So the new garden sits on about a 25' x 30' section of former lawn.Don't you just love that nice crunchy sound as you walk around in the garden?
After a night at the Eagles, dancing to the big band sounds of the Southern Oregon Jazz Orchestra, Mr. A (with Izzy to hold him down) naps at 11am the next morning. Even though we only drink bottled water when we dance, you can't fool the body! It's almost impossible to keep hydrated, so we both pay the next day with tired, bunched up muscles from all that spinning and Latin motion. Yeah, we're wasted and worthless for most of the following day! But oh well, we were having fun!!! Duh!
Did I mention I like chartreuse green in the garden this year? Can't seem to get enough of it. We found this fun folding chair at Chickadee in Shady Cove (a small town on the banks of the Rogue River north of Medford). Anyway, Chickadee is a garden whimsey store with so much great stuff that it's hard to choose only one thing. The chair was painted a hideous shade of pink...It has a flat seat...terrible for sitting but great for using as a plant stand. So half a can of Rustoleum 2x Spring Green later, and viola! (garden talk for voila!) the undergardener strikes again!
Here is the old sprinkling can I had painted blue during my "blue garden period some years ago...now the same bright green!
My baby tree is celebrating his 20th birthday with a new pot and some recharged potting soil. His official name is Larix kaempferi pendula but you can call him a Japanese Weeping Larch or "Larchy" for short. I've repotted him 3 times, cutting his rootlet back each time so he can be happy in a pot. A Larch is a deciduous conifer! Yes, that means every fall he loses his needles and grow new, bright green ones in the spring. And he has the cutest little cones! Not bad for a tree that is supposed to reach 60 feet in height by 30 feet wide! 
Of course some haircuts were required along the way to keep him in bounds and looking "artsy larchy."
