The problem was this. There's about a 3 feet wide strip beside my carport that had to be mowed... and it was a real pain in the backend to drag the lawn mower out there. Usually, when the neighbors mowed, they would go ahead and get all of it. Or when I mowed, I'd get all of it... However, it's rental property, so when I mowed it once last year, the rentors decided they didn't ever have to mow it again. To be fair, they weren't too up on mowing their front yard either, but this year I decided that I'd put down gravel and a rock garden, and any grass left in that strip was not my problem... We'll see how the new tenants feel about it... Here's the finished result...
and here's what I started with...
The wheel-barrow I found on the side of the road on trash day... The wheel basically don't work no more, but I ain't moving it anywhere, so who cares? I punched a few holes in the bottom for drainage, filled it with top-soil and pea gravel, and planted it...
These are rocks that I've been collecting over the last few months, and there are some fossils in there too... the gravel on this is decomposed granite. I used that because 1) it looks good and 2) it packs into a kind of 'crust' that resists being washed away...
This is really an experiment... the grass in there is variegated St. Augustine... in other words, variagated lawn grass. The prickly pear cuttings are nopales from the grocery store... this is a variety that won't mind the extra water I give the grass, and will grow very quickly... They won't however survive the winter here, and will probably die with the first frost. Of course I'll probably be eating them all summer...
In the middle is an old table leg that I was going to use for some project or other, I forget what. Anyway, the St. Augustine should grow like a demon and fill the tub... strange because it's being sold more as a house or patio plant than anything else, although feasably, I could just let it run crazy and have the first variagated lawn on the block...
Looking at the pics now, there's probably some things that will be reworked over the next few weeks. But it was hot out there, and after 2 days of wrestling with rocks, gravel, and spiney plants... I'm really relieved that I actually finished, and I kind of feel like I actually accomplished something for a change...
The neighbors seem ok with it... or everybody kept slowing down to look as they drove down the alley at least. Most of them smiled and waved... One guy scowled but I've never seen him do anything but scowl anyway... I'm the only person in the neighborhood whose ever planted anything in the alley, and I'm kinda hoping that eventually I'll inspire everybody else. But this is a first-time buyers neighborhood, almost everybody who buys here has never owned a home before and is moving straight in from an apartment. They tend to know very little to nothing about gardening.
And these are self seeded petunias. Sometimes, when you buy petunias and plant them, they scatter seeds, and this is pretty much what you'll get next year... plants that bloom in various shades of white, lavendar and purple.
And the next two are Yucca filamentosa blooming in a field of Coreopsis...
And really that's about it.... 
Well, if the story and description he gave me is accurate, it's the monstose form of the chain cholla, or Cylindropuntia fulgida var. Mammillata Monstrosa. And while he said he keeps his in a pot and carries it in every winter... it's actually hardy to 15 degrees farenheight, and I can grow it outside here... WOO HOO... they were a buck each so I bought two... one to pot up and bring in this winter and the other to leave outside to test it's hardiness... Supposedly, it can get to 8 feet tall. Hmmmmm
The straw bales are actually working out well in this rain... they do retain water, but they drain well enough to avoid the root rot that plauges gardeners this time of year here...
I've always called them cactus weavels. I don't know what they actually are... all I know is that they show up every year and the pierce the pads of my prickly pears to suck the sap and in the process make them look like this...
See those ugly yellow dots? NOT ACCEPTABLE. They won't kill a plant, but they will weaken it. And once a cactus is scarred, it's permanant. This happened when I tried Grandmas method of dried garlic on the roots to make the plant unpalatable to the critters. It works with most plants, but it evidently doesn't work with cactus. So back to insecticides... I tend to use Pyrethrin, simply because it's less toxic to people and pets than most other sprays. It's made from the leaves of English Daisy, if you have some of those around, you can actually make a tea and produce your own. I don't, so I have to buy it... 
