By Dan Bodine

Landscaping! It’s in me — But sometimes situations are a bit difficult! This is one of them: Removing Oleanders! They’re not for small gardens!

When we moved upriver to El Paso in 2010 from Presidio, i. e., the only plants around our house were a Western Catalpa in the front that’d die three years later from soil fungus, 4-5 tall cedars, and three large toxic, greedy Oleanders, all in the back.

The remaining space around the house was all landscape gravel — aka, rocks, rocks, rocks! Maybe 3-4 in. deep throughout the yard, it was — rocks, rocks, rocks! All tossed on sand that’d been trucked in soon after the house was built. On a squeezed lot just short of 50 ft. wide and maybe a 115 ft. deep.

“Plants setting down roots, in this?!!” I lamented often. “What the hell did we get into here???!!” Continue reading →