Thanks for the comments. Holleygarden, I do it all of the time! haha. A lot of the plant material I'm using is very young and will take some time to fill in. Most of the succulents actually look better this time of year when the cold temperatures come our way because they get awesome colorations. Take Aloe Cameronii for example, it will turn a bright red when stressed by cold or drought. Plus, I got to expand the "plantable" space in my yard. I am now growing lots of plants that I didn't have room for before. Arbutus Marina, Agave Vilmoriniana, Aloe Littoralis, Aloe marlothii, Aloe arborescens... those are only some of them. I can't wait to see what my yard evolves into. I agree with Rhodium as well. We thought we would need a lawn at the time we installed it. We would always have friends and family over, and we love to have a good barbeque, so we figured a lawn would be the best option. It turns out, we opted for eating indoors a majority of the time because it was either too hot or too cold outside! lol (our summer temperatures can easily reach 115F and more). Even if we ended up eating outside, we would stay under the ramada (to the right of the pictures above). It's been about 4 years since that. It was always such a hassle to mow the lawn, fertilize it, water dry spots... all for looks, since we hardly gave it its intended use. This summer was the last straw for me. The pressing drought issues along with what i've already mentioned made me take the lawn out. It was a rather slow process since I took out pieces as I had the money to replant the bare spots. Plus, I added some mounds here and there to give my aloes good drainage. Like laag mentioned, it makes you content to stay in the garden. And we use the area even more now that the lawn is gone!

Maybe this will benefit some people who have wasp problems, I'm sure it will work with yellow jackets and bees to. I discovered this wasp cure quite by accident. My brother had a dead animal in the walls of his house so we were trying to find something that would kill the smell, turns out chlorine and ammonia mixed will attack and kill the viruses that eat dead animals which causes the smell. I was experimenting with the mix and left a glass sitting on my back deck. Now I live in the country, have 3 acres and the wasps have historically been horrible at my house, when I get out of the car and come in side you would think I was dancing from dodging the wasps. I tried all the remedies, traps, sprays etc... but these are only good to kill them not keep them away. I noticed the next day after leaving this chlorine / Ammonia mix on my deck that there were considerably fewer wasps, which was odd. This was 2 weeks ago, I have kept a glass on my back deck for the past 2 weeks and now I might see an occasional one every now and then but it's usually flying away not at me. So if you want to keep wasps away, ie. not have to bother killing them, this stuff works big time. Get some chlorine tablets, you can buy them in jugs in most stores that sell pool supplies, get a bottle of regular household ammonia. Get a glass or I use a canning jar, put in 8 ounces of water and about 3 to 4 tablespoons of ammonia, now drop the chlorine tablet in and stir a couple rounds then leave it sit. (DO NOT DO THIS INDOORS) or if you do stay out for a couple hours. The gas released from the chemical reaction between the chlorine and ammonia is strong and wards off wasps and flies and mosquitos so far. This initial mix will last about 3 days, just stir it a couple times each day, then on the 4th day pour in another tablespoon or 2 of ammonia and stir again, repeat this for days 5, 6 and 7 then it's time to start a new batch. This has solved my wasp problem and I'm sure it will for you as well. Hope this helps

Cavalier, I had that happen to my first J of the season as it was in mid pupation early this summer. I saw the chrysalis dripping clear green fluid, and saw the wasp that attacked it. It's a terrible feeling to see our cats sick or dead! Sorry you're having them die. If you could posts pictures it might help. After mine died from the wasp, I built a 3' wide by 4' long by 4' tall enclosure over some outdoor in the ground milkweed plants. I used metal stakes that I already had, and bought aluminum screening for the 4 sides and top. I put the posts inside the screening, that was a mistake. The cats liked making their J on the hot metal posts, so I had to keep shade cloth over them. Next year I'll re-build it with the posts on the outside. It was easy to make. The enclosure has worked out really well by keeping out lizards, milkweed bugs, wasps, flies, black mold, powdery mildew, maybe OE, and insects that eat and curl the leaves. Just those clever dark yellow milkweed aphids got in. I have plenty of other milkweed growing outside the enclosure. In the early season I would gather the cats and put them in the enclosure to grow and form chrysalises. Later in the season a few got sick so now I have to raise them indoors. The milkweed I get outside for my indoor cats is much healthier if it's from the enclosure, but I wash it well anyway. The MW from the enclosure has no tiny monarch hatchlings on it and has almost no insect damage, black mold damage and likely no OE since no butterflies can visit it.. The MW not enclosed, but in the same yard, has a huge amount of black mold and insect damage on it. Probably 3/4 of the milkweed not enclosed isn't usable as food due to insect damage and mostly black mold damage. Same yard, I'm not sure how the aluminum screening keeps mold out, but it does. This late in the season your cats could be dying from OE, a deadly parasitic spore. (or from other things). The southeast has more OE than the west coast, and OE was a big problem for me last fall and winter, and still is this year but less so. You might google 'OE' to see how to spot it in cats and chrysalises, and google 'Monarch diseases'. There are a few good sites with pics. I haven't seen wasps around in a few months here (so. Ca.) Only 2 out of 100 Monarch eggs survive in the wild. You had a great amount of successes though! Indoor raising is a lot of work and very time consuming.

in my family, we always used "black salve" and that seems to work really quickly. I disagree. You may get results because it burns the area you put it on but can leave a scar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_salve Please be nice to honeybees! You don't need to run from them or squash them they are your friends. These bees are the big fat ones. If one lands on you, shoo it away sideways don't try to squish it. If you try to squish it, it will sting you in defense and lose its stinger and dies later. They only get one sting. Wasps on the other hand are carnivores and will bite and sting you for their own pleasure. Avoid them, and squashing them is totally OK! I prefer to play tennis with them with the fly swatter then step on them. If they land on you you will most likely get stung. You know that term Bee-line yea they gave it that name as you guys have mentioned they dive bomb you in a straight line sometimes. If you want to really not sleep at night, you can worry about the Asian Giant Hornet. Pray that it never ends up gaining a foothold here and stays over in Asia. These things are a menace and kill 30-40 people a year over there.