I just wanted to give a shout out to Francisco's company that loves what they are doing. Francisco is ready to tell us what will look cool, where to go to see his other work, and how it will all be put together. It is so fun to watch someone who is excited about what they do.
 |
| Francisco, Louis, Pepe, Miguel, and Martin Angelica's Gardening |
 |
| Francisco's explanation to Jeffrey |
 |
| Audience |
Francisco took us to a nursery in San Ramon today. He showed us plants and trees he feels would look good and asked us what we wanted in our yard. I only knew a few names of plants that I like and he took any idea or thought and ran with it. He has an artistry in his mind that I cannot see. I know I like lavender and now we have lavender plants and then yellow leaf plants that will look good with them. Some pinks and whites, a few bushes and four new fruit trees. - but it is hard for me to see what he is trying to describe.
He was also showing us how he could get the best plants for the best price and was very picky on which pot had good plants. He showed us a couple of plants that wiggled too much and were not firm. He said they wouldn't grow well when transplanted. He showed us the five-gallon versus the fifteen-gallon buckets and showed us how the five-gallon bucket with a cheaper price had the better tree.
It is nice to watch an expert get excited and do his thing. His artistry came out when he was "drawing" up the little piece of lawn for the backyard. He asked about how much yard we wanted and then curved it up to match the curve in the cement - right in the dirt. He is very particular in executing when we give him a vague general plan. He can turn it into something very nice.
92 pots, three trees, 5 to 10 bushes, lots of grasses, all ready to go......we'll watch Francisco 'paint' his vision of an artistic yard in the next few days.
There were so many workers around our house on Thursday! The yards have no greenery except one orange tree, one grapefruit tree, one apricot tree, and the crabapple tree on the side of the house. Everything else has been taken out and hauled away. Woodchips from the back yard, weeds, bushes, trees the squirrels planted, old logs, unwanted tree stumps, old gravel and cement and cement blocks have all been shoveled up in wheelbarrows onto trucks and hauled away.
Inside the house old window panes, stucco, and odd pieces have been collected up and thrown away.
 |
| Laying out a sprinkler system for the one patch of grass we will have left. |
 |
| Laying down gravel |
Tuesday March 26
For two days now we have had men working in our back and front yards. Francisco is the owner/foreman/boss that makes things happen. He told Jeffrey he would start on Monday and he has had workers here tearing out the old lawn with hoes, hacks, axes, and shear brut force. These men are very hard workers and get a lot done. I can't wait to see what they turn our yards in to.
 |
| Out goes the weeds in the front |
 |
| Orange tree is getting trimmed and other trees are gone |
 |
| Every bush and tree taken out is taken out deep down roots. |
Francisco's team come at 7 and sometimes stay until 6 pm. All are very hard workers.
I got home from the gym today with lots of workers outside of the house ripping up the weeds, trimming the trees, uprooting bushes, and workers inside of the house putting in cabinet handles. An hour later the windows for the house arrived in a big truck, so the inside people are setting up windows outside. Yup, everything is hopping!
 |
| Out with the old, in with the new |
 |
| Windows being delivered |
 |
| They trimmed the apricot tree up very nice! |
