We were approached by our landlords/next door neighbors a couple weeks ago to see if we'd be amenable to them removing the mature elm in our back yard so it could be relocated to their front yard to replace a dying ornamental orange. In exchange, they would go ahead with the full rear yard makeover we'd been discussing with them for the past year or so.
How could we possibly say no? Right now the yard is a mess, and the only redeeming feature is that tree.
Last Thursday the tree guy showed up and successfully removed the dying citrus from their front yard.
Unfortunately…
…no matter how many ways they tried it, they could not get the tree removal truck into our back yard (even though the tree guy had previously assured our landlords he could get it back there) to move the elm.
So as it stands now, the landlords are going to have to enlarge the gate before the truck can get in the back yard. We don't yet know the timetable, but since they've already paid to have the tree moved, I can't imagine it will be that long.
We all met with the landscape architect later that day to discuss the plans for the back yard. Apparently our landlords had a much more ambitious plan in mind than we could ever have ever wished for. We just wanted to get rid of most of the water-sucking, impossible-to-maintain always-on-the-verge-of-death lawn and replace it with a more drought-tolerant landscape and run a paver path from the patio to the back gate. They're not only doing that; they're planning on redoing everything. We're getting a new patio with a pergola, gravel in most of the yard with a small lawn area, and new, more drought-resistant trees.
From what was discussed, it sounds like we're going to end up with something similar to this:
It's probably going to be a disaster while it's happening, but the results will definitely be worth it!