yard mini-makeover

The yard got a professional face lift earlier this week.  It needed it despite our, thus-far, weak attempts to tame it.  I find it just a tad bit taxing to do yard work when it's already pushing 100 degrees at 8am.  I whine A LOT about sweating and the sun burning my pasty-white skin and my husband taunts me with words like "I think we should keep going" and "what do you say we just finish the whole yard?" (But then he quits after *only* 2 hours of work and I rejoice.) 

We won't be planting anything new until the spring when we'll have time to figure out what actually needs to go.  It's just so difficult to picture the yard without all the 20-year-old shrubs.  Will it look too sparse?  How many new plants should we get?  And what kind of plants don't need any maintenance whatsoever?  That would be the perfect yard.

Here is the most significant before-and-after.  I think it looks so much better with that one giant shrub removed, don't you?

And here's the agave that had fallen over due to root rot, perhaps.  It was sad to see it go because it was the best thing in the yard, but it does have lots of pups around it (yes, that's what the baby agave plants are called.)  I want to dig up some of the pups and distribute them to other spots in the yard...once I actually buy a shovel.  Although, I'm not sure if I'll be able to get the pups out from amongst that cactus on the left.  Cactus needles and my skin tend to gravitate towards each other.

And here's a few shots of my first cactus flower!  The pic on the right was taken the day after the flower opened up.  I was disappointed that it didn't open back up.  I guess the cactus's bloom is a one-night only special.  Weird and beautiful.