A Snowbird in Paradise

Rose was "Quite a Gardener". That is the first thing I heard about our neighbor before I ever came down here. When I asked her about this plant or that she just laughed and said it was something pretty. If it had a flower, she loved it. Among the tangle of native plants, she had an extensive collection of orchids. I have been reading up on cultivation of orchids and she didn't do ANY of those things, but her orchids, in pots of sand, shoved under bushes, flourished.

About a year ago Rose passed away. Her two adult children from back in Ohio cleared out the house and left furniture and other amenities in case friend or family wanted to stay for a little vacation. All of the orchids were put out by the street with a sign asking passers-by to give them good homes.

The rest of the tangle of native plants has kept growing and growing until they began to push through the screen of the pool enclosure. Today we called and received permission to prune back around the screen house. Above is how it looked when we started. Below are a couple of pictures of the finished landscaping and one of the two truckloads of prunings we took to the dump.