Wish list

OK, taking a brief dissertation break here and pondering some things I am dreaming about for our home.  I can have a post like this right?  I think it will be funny to look back on it.   :)

Yesterday, we hired a gardening expert to come and teach us about our yard and plants.  We definitely should have done this last year because many of our trees, plants, and grass are in really bad shape, with some irreparable damage.  We have a plum tree that basically hemorrhages plums every June, causing major plum carnage in driveway.  It's gross.  We can't pick them fast enough or something.  Well, we learned yesterday that the reason for that is because we didn't water them enough so the tree doesn't have enough nutrients to hold onto them.  As this guy was describing how our garden slowly died, I seriously felt so guilty!!!  Man.  We also have a lemon tree that is so far gone with various issues that we basically have to uproot it and plant another tree.  We also have to uproot a bunch of dying lavender.  Really tragic!  I know the previous owners were avid gardeners and they put in so much time and care to cultivate all of these things only for us to kill them.  Ugh.... 

I was never a gardening type and I think I'd be fine living in a condo for the rest of my life.  But now that I'm learning about plants, all of a sudden, I'm noticing every flower and plant around me.  We briefly drove through San Marino today and I was amazed at the beauty of their gardens!  So...now I want to save our dying yard and at least make it presentable.  But of course all of this costs money...money we don't have.  So my wish list is just growing longer...

My wishlist
1) Paint house exterior
2) String backyard cafe lights (always my dream to have this)
3) Paint dining room and switch out ugly chandelier (irrationally bothers me)
4)  Cover backyard wall in vines (creeping fig?) so it is a sheet of green.  Love this look!  Pair this with cafe lights and dining al fresco under the big oak tree and you pretty much have my dream home setup.
5) Fill our huge desolate vegetable garden with actual vegetables
6)Plant fun and colorful flowers along the front walkway.
7) Cover front wrought iron gate with more star jasmine (too sparse now)
8) Plant another lemon tree to replace the one we neglected
9) Fix some sprinklers so that all of these plants won't die again
10) Figure out irrigation system for vegetable garden and concrete wall
11) Plant trees/plants in the empty backyard raised garden thing
12) Buy all the plant and soil nutrients/fertilizers/medicine that we need to buy and deal with it
13)Build custom benches in the backyard seating area with wood slats (also cover ugly cinder block raised garden thing) so that it looks like this:

Via Smitten Studio

So my home wishlist that was originally 3 points how has expanded to 13.  I had no idea having a yard took so up much time and money!  Now I know why retired people are always talking about spending time in the garden.  It can be a full-time job! 

OK, back to work.