here are some pictures of the yard.

http://tinyurl.com/9fvop

i believe the area i am in calls for 'coastal sage scrub' plants. i am
inland a bit and it gets pretty hot in the summer.

the ice plant wasn't that hard to get up, actually. i just got angry at
it and it all came up, hahhaha. i'm worried it'll come back, though,
and i wonder if it has done anything to the soil composition, since it
was really thick.

-c