Developing the courtyard area at The Tropical Paradise

The courtyard area at The Tropical Paradise has been neglected for years. Because of the low wall, this area isn't really visible from the front of the house. And since I enter and exit the house from the garage, I rarely go here. Trick-or-treaters have used this area, and Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's it. In the past few weeks, though, I have been sitting out here in the morning and pondering what to do.

My first step was to get rid of the blocks that were being hefted up by the roots of the tree. In twenty years, that tree has gone from being a little twig to being, well, a tree. And while you can't see the roots (they're by Macintosh's tail), they are there, and will continue to grow. Of course, it won't affect the concrete sidewalk, which is an original part of the house, but the blocks were just set in sand and had started to get all crooked, and worse than that, had become a trip hazard. You can see that I left a few of them in. And I will get more pots and put in more plants (in the area where Macintosh is sniffing).

The pavers in the background will be going away as a friend has promised to take them. They were originally in the backyard, but I took them out years ago. Stuff like this is hard to get rid of. Loose trash pickup here in Glendale is great, but they don't take things like this. And you can't exactly put them in the trash can! Our city workers have enough to contend with without having great big heavy chunks of concrete falling out of trash cans!

From a design standpoint, I want to leave a clear path from the side of the house to the front. It's narrower than it looks in the photo, so I don't want to put any more plants there. I am thinking about putting some fountain grass in the corner, when the pavers are gone, though.