We got just a quick glimpse of our first hummer this afternoon. It stopped briefly at one of the two feeders I hung up recently and then dashed off to where ever it is these little buggers go. I promptly put out two more feeders now that I know they are ready to start coming around.
Years ago I visited a farm in Dayton, Washington where the family had been putting out dozens of hummingbird feeders for many years. Their place was over-run with several varieties of hummers, many of which kept nests in their pine trees. Those birds had grown so accustomed to the people coming and going that if anyone stood quietly without moving for 15-20 minutes the hummers would actually light on them.
I don't know that our yard will ever rival that level of hummer activity, but I am hoping that by keeping multiple feeders well stocked from now till October we should get some fairly steady sighting. One thing I learned from the hummingbird sanctuary in Dayton was to put some of the feeders down low. Apparently hummers like variety in the location of their food sources.
Showing posts with label spring 2011. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spring 2011. Show all posts
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Friday, May 13, 2011
It's DONE!
After WEEKS of hard work and perhaps a few more dollars than we had initially planned to spend, the front yard project to re-vamp the landscaping is FINALLY done.
I love the raised beds for my veggies (tomatoes, squash, Swiss chard, spinach, okra, radish, carrots and cucumber) - ESPECIALLY because the drip hoses are all set up on a timer so the garden will water itself.
Then just for fun my sweet husband added a nice water feature - you can't really see them in the picture but there are an undisclosed number of turtles of various sizes and composition scattered around the catch basin of the fountain. It has been fun to challenge friends to a game of "Count The Turtles". I had planned it for little kids but there are two that have stumped more than one grown up.
I am excited to see how it will look when my flowers get going. In my big red pot I've got pink wave petunias, meezo (little red flowers),white bacopa calibachoa (ultra purple) with a Dahlia in the middle for height.
In the corner flowerbed where the light post is we have 3 roses, 3 cone flowers and an ornamental grass and some chunky rocks. Then in the flower barrel out there I've got more wave petunias and a biddy (yellow flowers)with geranium in the middle. I had tried some morning glories I had started inside but they don't look too happy. I thought they would look pretty going up the post but I may just replace that with something else.
Anyway...it was a lot of work. I'm glad we got it finished before it got really hot. Moving grass and shoveling rock about wore me out! I am SOOOO appreciative of my sweet husband for all the work he put into this project. There is no way I would ever have anything this nice without him.
Tomorrow afternoon we are having a BBQ here for the students in my class. It will be fun to have them see it.
I've loved my back yard since the day we moved here. Now my front yard is every bit as pretty in its own way. I love being surrounded by beauty! Then to be able to grow some yummy fresh veggies for our table makes it that much better.
I love the raised beds for my veggies (tomatoes, squash, Swiss chard, spinach, okra, radish, carrots and cucumber) - ESPECIALLY because the drip hoses are all set up on a timer so the garden will water itself.
Then just for fun my sweet husband added a nice water feature - you can't really see them in the picture but there are an undisclosed number of turtles of various sizes and composition scattered around the catch basin of the fountain. It has been fun to challenge friends to a game of "Count The Turtles". I had planned it for little kids but there are two that have stumped more than one grown up.
I am excited to see how it will look when my flowers get going. In my big red pot I've got pink wave petunias, meezo (little red flowers),white bacopa calibachoa (ultra purple) with a Dahlia in the middle for height.In the corner flowerbed where the light post is we have 3 roses, 3 cone flowers and an ornamental grass and some chunky rocks. Then in the flower barrel out there I've got more wave petunias and a biddy (yellow flowers)with geranium in the middle. I had tried some morning glories I had started inside but they don't look too happy. I thought they would look pretty going up the post but I may just replace that with something else.
Anyway...it was a lot of work. I'm glad we got it finished before it got really hot. Moving grass and shoveling rock about wore me out! I am SOOOO appreciative of my sweet husband for all the work he put into this project. There is no way I would ever have anything this nice without him.
Tomorrow afternoon we are having a BBQ here for the students in my class. It will be fun to have them see it.
I've loved my back yard since the day we moved here. Now my front yard is every bit as pretty in its own way. I love being surrounded by beauty! Then to be able to grow some yummy fresh veggies for our table makes it that much better.
Saturday, May 07, 2011
New Plants
Today I went to the annual fundraiser plant sale at the Boise Botanical gardens. We were moving rock in the the front yard most of the early part of the day so I didn't get to the sale till just shortly before they closed. Part of that was deliberate, figuring I didn't need the temptation of all the fine specimen plants they probably had to offer early on. As much a I can I try to avoid buying new plants all together...I trade starts of stuff I have with other gardeners who have things to share, saving us both some cash and making some new friends in the process. But I figured a few new babies to support the sale could not hurt.
I got a black hollyhock that I am very excited about and a really pretty bachelor button called "Amethyst Dream" that has rich purple flowers. Then I let one of the volunteers talk me in to one that I wasn't crazy about, but she said it would do well in nearly full shade and since I have so much shade to cover I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try.
This one is a lungwort, or pulmonaria. I was not at all familiar with it so I looked it up to add it to my inventory of plants. This is what I learned:
"Apart from being a pretty garden flower, old-fashioned common lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) was a favorite medicinal herb in the Middle Ages. It got both its common and Latin names from the curious belief, expressed in the 16th century by a Swiss alchemist in the Doctrine of Signatures, that god made herbs to treat human illnesses and each herb’s physical appearance actually indicated how it should be used. Because the leaves of some lungwort species are oval-shaped with white spots, apothecaries concluded the plant was a sure cure for spotted lungs, i.e. “pulmonary” diseases like pleurisy, tuberculosis or pneumonia. What seems like crazy superstition to us dominated medical thinking in Europe in the 16th and the 17th centuries. Common lungwort has silver-spotted foliage and sprays of mauve buds that open into small blue flowers. It grows about 12 inches (30 cm) high and spreads aggressively by underground runners, making it a good groundcover for wildish, shady places under shrubs or trees." (By Janet Davis at BeutifulBotony.com)
The plant I got is a bit leggy, but we got it planted back in the shady spot in the back corner of the yard and we'll see how it does.
I got a black hollyhock that I am very excited about and a really pretty bachelor button called "Amethyst Dream" that has rich purple flowers. Then I let one of the volunteers talk me in to one that I wasn't crazy about, but she said it would do well in nearly full shade and since I have so much shade to cover I thought I'd go ahead and give it a try.
This one is a lungwort, or pulmonaria. I was not at all familiar with it so I looked it up to add it to my inventory of plants. This is what I learned:
"Apart from being a pretty garden flower, old-fashioned common lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis) was a favorite medicinal herb in the Middle Ages. It got both its common and Latin names from the curious belief, expressed in the 16th century by a Swiss alchemist in the Doctrine of Signatures, that god made herbs to treat human illnesses and each herb’s physical appearance actually indicated how it should be used. Because the leaves of some lungwort species are oval-shaped with white spots, apothecaries concluded the plant was a sure cure for spotted lungs, i.e. “pulmonary” diseases like pleurisy, tuberculosis or pneumonia. What seems like crazy superstition to us dominated medical thinking in Europe in the 16th and the 17th centuries. Common lungwort has silver-spotted foliage and sprays of mauve buds that open into small blue flowers. It grows about 12 inches (30 cm) high and spreads aggressively by underground runners, making it a good groundcover for wildish, shady places under shrubs or trees." (By Janet Davis at BeutifulBotony.com)
The plant I got is a bit leggy, but we got it planted back in the shady spot in the back corner of the yard and we'll see how it does.
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Ready for Hummers
I put up three of my hummingbird feeders this morning. I have a few others that I'll wait on until I see my small friends appear.
Here are some great links for Hummingbird information, some specific to Idaho:
Tracking arrival date by county HERE
Basic Information
Migration Info
Banding Programs
So the watch begins. I'm looking forward to that first sighting. Even though they can be aggressive little bullies, I can't help but love these diminutive birds.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
BLOOM REPORT
Here is some of what I have blooming in my yard right now:
Bleeding heart
Tulips (along with some Basket of Gold - and while not blooming that rhubarb you see on the left behind the row of tulips is looking mighty fine.)
I think violets are so cheerful - and the lilies and allium coming up give promise of more pretty blooms yet to come.
Ornamental Plum Tree
Siberian Bugloss (false Forget-me-Not)
The deadnettle along the pathway has gone absolutely nuts. This is just one of the several different species of lamium we have.
I particularly like this one:
There's lots more - way more than I have the patience to photograph or upload. LOTS of things are just beginning to emerge. Every couple of days something new blooms. I love Boise in the spring time. What a blessing it is to have this garden~!
Bleeding heart
Tulips (along with some Basket of Gold - and while not blooming that rhubarb you see on the left behind the row of tulips is looking mighty fine.)
I think violets are so cheerful - and the lilies and allium coming up give promise of more pretty blooms yet to come.
Ornamental Plum Tree
Siberian Bugloss (false Forget-me-Not)
The deadnettle along the pathway has gone absolutely nuts. This is just one of the several different species of lamium we have.
I particularly like this one:
There's lots more - way more than I have the patience to photograph or upload. LOTS of things are just beginning to emerge. Every couple of days something new blooms. I love Boise in the spring time. What a blessing it is to have this garden~!
Picking our Battles
Our many projects on the yard continue. Because of that we decided to forgo one project that was just bigger than we wanted to take on.
When we bought our house last year there was an old picnic table in the back yard that we had planned on scraping and repainting. We started the scraping job and bought the primer and paint. But the more we worked on it, the more overwhelming the task seemed to be. So finally we threw it the towel and decided to just give the thing away to someone with more energy and patience that we had. Can you blame us?
It didn't take us long to find a home for it. Better them than me!
Instead of working on that old bench we've focused on the front yard. We've gone from digging rocks and roots to a finished flowerbed with three rose bushes, several cone flowers, an ornamental grass and a big pot for some bright colored annuals yet to be planted. My hard working hubby did a terrific job of completely reworking our irrigation system to go from the old lawn springlers to a drip system that will target each plant with just the right amount of H20 to keep them thriving in our hot summer sun.
We went from a hole in the ground to a working fountain. No small task, that one. Had to bring electricity out to the site, haul lots of rocks, and dig a deep enough hole to submerge the recirculating pump. Then came moving the actual fountain piece we bought at the Boise garden show. Holy cow the thing weighs over 300 pounds! (It just LOOKS like a big tall rock - it's actually formed concrete.) Thank goodness for kind neighbors with strong backs!
Probably the biggest job was removing half our lawn and getting the raised beds created and filled.
Next we will be putting in the brick edging to match what we did around the corner flowerbed going all the way around the area where the raised beds are. Then we will lay down landscape fabric and stone. We thought about putting bark there, but since we get a fair amount of falling leaves in the fall we want something we can use our leaf blower on to clean it up. We've looked at a few different kinds - sort of leaning toward gold cinder. If I had lots of money I'd go for the new rubber mulch just because it would be cozy for bare feet, but then again that would get us back to the same problem with leaf clean up so I guess rock will have to do.
It has been a lot of work. My sweet husband has been amazing with the amount of progress that he has been able to get done each day. We had one lady who lives up the street be so impressed she wants to put the same raised beds in her yard. So we worked out a barter deal - Larry will do the miter cuts on her pieces of wood with his fancy saw in exchange for tomato plants and herbs she has growing in her plant shed. What a deal!
When we first started tearing out our lawn and the neighbors heard that we were planning to have our garden in the front yard I think they were all worried that it was going to be a horrible eyesore. But now that we've gotten these stages done lots of folks walking by or riding their bikes have commented on how nice it looks.
A few have teased us that they are looking forward to helping themselves to our tomatoes. At least I HOPE they are teasing! We are not tempting fate by growing watermelons. Those would just invite trouble.
Larry and I got into a great conversation this evening about the comparative ethics of watermelon stealing. It was one of those hilarious you-had-to-be-there sort of conversations not soon forgotten.
We're tired. We'll be glad when it is all done. But it is a good kind of tired that comes with taking on a big project and seeing it through.
When we bought our house last year there was an old picnic table in the back yard that we had planned on scraping and repainting. We started the scraping job and bought the primer and paint. But the more we worked on it, the more overwhelming the task seemed to be. So finally we threw it the towel and decided to just give the thing away to someone with more energy and patience that we had. Can you blame us?
It didn't take us long to find a home for it. Better them than me!
Instead of working on that old bench we've focused on the front yard. We've gone from digging rocks and roots to a finished flowerbed with three rose bushes, several cone flowers, an ornamental grass and a big pot for some bright colored annuals yet to be planted. My hard working hubby did a terrific job of completely reworking our irrigation system to go from the old lawn springlers to a drip system that will target each plant with just the right amount of H20 to keep them thriving in our hot summer sun.
We went from a hole in the ground to a working fountain. No small task, that one. Had to bring electricity out to the site, haul lots of rocks, and dig a deep enough hole to submerge the recirculating pump. Then came moving the actual fountain piece we bought at the Boise garden show. Holy cow the thing weighs over 300 pounds! (It just LOOKS like a big tall rock - it's actually formed concrete.) Thank goodness for kind neighbors with strong backs!
Probably the biggest job was removing half our lawn and getting the raised beds created and filled.
Next we will be putting in the brick edging to match what we did around the corner flowerbed going all the way around the area where the raised beds are. Then we will lay down landscape fabric and stone. We thought about putting bark there, but since we get a fair amount of falling leaves in the fall we want something we can use our leaf blower on to clean it up. We've looked at a few different kinds - sort of leaning toward gold cinder. If I had lots of money I'd go for the new rubber mulch just because it would be cozy for bare feet, but then again that would get us back to the same problem with leaf clean up so I guess rock will have to do.
It has been a lot of work. My sweet husband has been amazing with the amount of progress that he has been able to get done each day. We had one lady who lives up the street be so impressed she wants to put the same raised beds in her yard. So we worked out a barter deal - Larry will do the miter cuts on her pieces of wood with his fancy saw in exchange for tomato plants and herbs she has growing in her plant shed. What a deal!
When we first started tearing out our lawn and the neighbors heard that we were planning to have our garden in the front yard I think they were all worried that it was going to be a horrible eyesore. But now that we've gotten these stages done lots of folks walking by or riding their bikes have commented on how nice it looks.
A few have teased us that they are looking forward to helping themselves to our tomatoes. At least I HOPE they are teasing! We are not tempting fate by growing watermelons. Those would just invite trouble.
Larry and I got into a great conversation this evening about the comparative ethics of watermelon stealing. It was one of those hilarious you-had-to-be-there sort of conversations not soon forgotten.
We're tired. We'll be glad when it is all done. But it is a good kind of tired that comes with taking on a big project and seeing it through.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
FRONT YARD INVENTORY (Updated spring 2012)
TREES -
Japanese Maple (photo)
Tri-Color Beech (photo)
Weeping Pussy Willow (photo)
Serpentine Weeping Cherry
BUSHES -
Burning Bush (photo)
Corkscrew Hazelnut - Red Majectic
Forsythia (photo)
Redtwig Dogwood
ROSES
Double Delight (photo)
Hot Cocoa
Peace(photo)
OTHER FLOWERS
Cosmos
Crocus (photo)
Dahlia - Lambada
Daylilies
Echinacea (Purple corn flower)( photo)
Gladiolas
Iris (photo)
Lupine
Pansies
Primrose
Red Hot Poker / Torch Lilies
Shasta Daisies
Stargazer Lilies (photo)
Tulip - "Claudia" (photo)
Violas / Johnny Jump-Up
GRASSES & GROUNDCOVERS
Blue Oat Grass (photos)
Feather Reed Grass - "Karl Foerster"
Sweet Woodruff (photos)
Lawn - Kentucky Blue Grass (photo)
In the Garden
Tomatoes (6 different heritage varieties)
snow peas, Garlic, Walla Walla Sweet onions, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Cucumbers, Egyptian walking onion, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash
Japanese Maple (photo)
Tri-Color Beech (photo)
Weeping Pussy Willow (photo)
Serpentine Weeping Cherry
BUSHES -
Burning Bush (photo)
Corkscrew Hazelnut - Red Majectic
Forsythia (photo)
Redtwig Dogwood
ROSES
Double Delight (photo)
Hot Cocoa
Peace(photo)
OTHER FLOWERS
Cosmos
Crocus (photo)
Dahlia - Lambada
Daylilies
Echinacea (Purple corn flower)( photo)
Gladiolas
Iris (photo)
Lupine
Pansies
Primrose
Red Hot Poker / Torch Lilies
Shasta Daisies
Stargazer Lilies (photo)
Tulip - "Claudia" (photo)
Violas / Johnny Jump-Up
GRASSES & GROUNDCOVERS
Blue Oat Grass (photos)
Feather Reed Grass - "Karl Foerster"
Sweet Woodruff (photos)
Lawn - Kentucky Blue Grass (photo)
In the Garden
Tomatoes (6 different heritage varieties)
snow peas, Garlic, Walla Walla Sweet onions, Swiss Chard, Spinach, Cucumbers, Egyptian walking onion, zucchini, yellow squash, acorn squash, butternut squash
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Name That Plant - continued
Well, I'm excited to finally begin to be able to identify more of the things I have growing in my yard.
THIS plant is called Pieris japonica, also known as "Lilly of the Valley Bush" and I'm excited to learn that those buds it is showing now will develop into lovely long white chains of flowers that are supposed to be quite fragrant and the new growth will start out a pretty bright red before transition to these evergreen leaves. We have these all along the back of the house so they should put on quite a show.
This one is Bergenia cordifolia 'Eroica', more commonly known as "Pig Squeak". I have a bunch of them scattered in flower beds all over the back yard. They keep sending off new babies so I plan to share some with other gardeners I know.
Of course I was already familiar with hellebore (also known as "Lenten rose"), but did not realize how many different varieties there are. (There are 15 different kinds.) I have three or four different colors. They are so pretty it is a shame they keep the faces of their flowers hanging down to the ground, but I think of them as bowing in prayer, expressing humility rather than showing off their fancy faces which is appropriate for the season of Lent. These too have created lots of babies where I don't want them, so I'll be passing on starts of those as well. Any takers among my Boise garden friends?
Here we have one of the many variety of sedum
There are of course still several others I have yet to learn about. But I'm getting there. We moved in last June so I missed the spring here entirely last year. It really is exciting to see the many different things emerging from the ground and watch them take shape, unfold, become the lovely specimen plants I was introduced to all at once last summer. Each season has its own special surprises.
I have friends who tell me they can't imagine having to do all the weeding and dead heading that I welcome with such a passion. To each their own. As for me, I am seldom happier than when I am digging in the dirt in my garden.
THIS plant is called Pieris japonica, also known as "Lilly of the Valley Bush" and I'm excited to learn that those buds it is showing now will develop into lovely long white chains of flowers that are supposed to be quite fragrant and the new growth will start out a pretty bright red before transition to these evergreen leaves. We have these all along the back of the house so they should put on quite a show.
This one is Bergenia cordifolia 'Eroica', more commonly known as "Pig Squeak". I have a bunch of them scattered in flower beds all over the back yard. They keep sending off new babies so I plan to share some with other gardeners I know.
Of course I was already familiar with hellebore (also known as "Lenten rose"), but did not realize how many different varieties there are. (There are 15 different kinds.) I have three or four different colors. They are so pretty it is a shame they keep the faces of their flowers hanging down to the ground, but I think of them as bowing in prayer, expressing humility rather than showing off their fancy faces which is appropriate for the season of Lent. These too have created lots of babies where I don't want them, so I'll be passing on starts of those as well. Any takers among my Boise garden friends?Here we have one of the many variety of sedum
There are of course still several others I have yet to learn about. But I'm getting there. We moved in last June so I missed the spring here entirely last year. It really is exciting to see the many different things emerging from the ground and watch them take shape, unfold, become the lovely specimen plants I was introduced to all at once last summer. Each season has its own special surprises.
I have friends who tell me they can't imagine having to do all the weeding and dead heading that I welcome with such a passion. To each their own. As for me, I am seldom happier than when I am digging in the dirt in my garden.
Boise in the spring time
I happened to have the day off today (a RARE occasion during the week) so my beloved and I took Morgan the wonder dog for a nice long walk along the green belt. I already knew I loved being in Boise, but today was an absolute stunning day.
Boise is known as the "City of Trees" with good reason. There are so many gorgeous trees, and this time of year when the naked sticks are clothing themselves in new leaves is pretty amazing.
The Boise River is running really high between the spring rains and the snow melt off which reminds me all over again why I will NEVER live by a river...
This is no where near flood stage, but it is high enough to show that rivers are living creatures that can jump their banks and go where they please.
I feel really blessed to live in a place that has so many great places to go hiking, many of which are within just a few minutes of where I live. What I like about Boise is that it is big enough to have some terrific resources, yet close enough to mountains, waters, and wilderness to offer the quality of life factors that I value. So this time of year I split my discretionary time between working out in my back yard tending to the flowers or heading out to some spot along the 22 miles of tree lined pathways and parks near me to walk the dog. Either way it feels good to be surrounded by beauty. So if I'm sporadic about adding new blog posts, you'll know why. I'm not spending a lot of time at home in front of the computer. Morgan and I are out on the trail.
Boise is known as the "City of Trees" with good reason. There are so many gorgeous trees, and this time of year when the naked sticks are clothing themselves in new leaves is pretty amazing.
The Boise River is running really high between the spring rains and the snow melt off which reminds me all over again why I will NEVER live by a river...
This is no where near flood stage, but it is high enough to show that rivers are living creatures that can jump their banks and go where they please.
I feel really blessed to live in a place that has so many great places to go hiking, many of which are within just a few minutes of where I live. What I like about Boise is that it is big enough to have some terrific resources, yet close enough to mountains, waters, and wilderness to offer the quality of life factors that I value. So this time of year I split my discretionary time between working out in my back yard tending to the flowers or heading out to some spot along the 22 miles of tree lined pathways and parks near me to walk the dog. Either way it feels good to be surrounded by beauty. So if I'm sporadic about adding new blog posts, you'll know why. I'm not spending a lot of time at home in front of the computer. Morgan and I are out on the trail.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
BLOOMS & Mysteries
My yard continues to come alive with spring flowers. The two rhododendrons in back of the house have been simply glorious.
And we've got lots of other things blooming, violets, vinca, lamina, hellebore, bugloss to name just a few.
However, we've also got things in flower that I have NO IDEA what are.
Mystery Tree # 1 - Remember that bushy tree I didn't know what was? I still have no clue what to call it, but it sure has turned pretty with these lovely yellow blooms all over it.
Mystery Tree 2. This one hangs over our fence into the neighbor's yard quite a ways so I was going to trim it back. But it blooms so pretty they begged me not to.
And there's plenty of other stuff just beginning to come up that I have yet to identify. It's going to be an interesting summer learning more about what we have growing here!
And we've got lots of other things blooming, violets, vinca, lamina, hellebore, bugloss to name just a few.
However, we've also got things in flower that I have NO IDEA what are.
Mystery Tree # 1 - Remember that bushy tree I didn't know what was? I still have no clue what to call it, but it sure has turned pretty with these lovely yellow blooms all over it.
Mystery Tree 2. This one hangs over our fence into the neighbor's yard quite a ways so I was going to trim it back. But it blooms so pretty they begged me not to.
And there's plenty of other stuff just beginning to come up that I have yet to identify. It's going to be an interesting summer learning more about what we have growing here!
Sunday, April 03, 2011
SPRING!
FINALLY it is officially Spring. I've been getting out in the yard to dig in the dirt every chance I can get. It does my heart good to see things coming back to life.
Of course, there are the obvious and expected things like Crocus Booming
Giant alliums coming up
Tulips Coming up
Lamium blooming
and the Rhododendron's showing a bit of color, buds just getting ready to pop.
(I'm especially excited about them since we moved in here in June, after they were all finished so this will be my first season to see them bloom.)
However, there are still plenty of plants in the yard I have yet to identify. So, friends, neighbors, it's time once again to play NAME THAT PLANT.
Do you know any of these?
MYSTERY PLANT 1 - low ground plant with small white flowers
MYSTERY PLANT 2 - I don't kn0w whether to call this a tall bush or a bushy tree - it's over 6 foot tall...no clue what it is.
MYSTERY PLANT #3 - this is and evergreen shrub of some sort planted behind my rhododendron. I was hoping it also bloomed but the little bud things don't look too promising.
MYSTERY PLANT #4 -
I have several of these and think they are pretty, but I have no idea what it is.
There's lots of other things coming up...I will catalog a few each week, some I know and some I don't. Also - coming soon, photos of our complete remodel of the front yard. GASP. Yep, we have begun. Chopped down the giant locust tree much to our neighbor's horror. Then we started tearing out lawn. Not ALL of it...we have a nice curving strip in the front which I affectionately refer to as my "bikini lawn". Behind that, however will soon be 3 4' x 8' raised beds surrounded by bark and off to the side a fountain that I will plant geraniums and marigolds around. Then, in front around the ugly light pole that our housing development requires for every yard (ugh!) we have taken out a big section of grass where we plan to put in 3 rose bushes, some tall ornamental grass, lilies and maybe move the delphiniums from the back yard that never get enough sun to bloom.
We also bought a serpentine weeping cherry and a weeping pussy willow tree to plant in front.
It's all a torn up mess right now, but we're diligently working on it and hoping that it will be beautiful when we get it all done.
Of course, there are the obvious and expected things like Crocus Booming
Giant alliums coming up
Tulips Coming up
Lamium blooming
and the Rhododendron's showing a bit of color, buds just getting ready to pop.
(I'm especially excited about them since we moved in here in June, after they were all finished so this will be my first season to see them bloom.)
However, there are still plenty of plants in the yard I have yet to identify. So, friends, neighbors, it's time once again to play NAME THAT PLANT.
Do you know any of these?
MYSTERY PLANT 1 - low ground plant with small white flowers
MYSTERY PLANT 2 - I don't kn0w whether to call this a tall bush or a bushy tree - it's over 6 foot tall...no clue what it is.
MYSTERY PLANT #3 - this is and evergreen shrub of some sort planted behind my rhododendron. I was hoping it also bloomed but the little bud things don't look too promising.
MYSTERY PLANT #4 -
I have several of these and think they are pretty, but I have no idea what it is.
There's lots of other things coming up...I will catalog a few each week, some I know and some I don't. Also - coming soon, photos of our complete remodel of the front yard. GASP. Yep, we have begun. Chopped down the giant locust tree much to our neighbor's horror. Then we started tearing out lawn. Not ALL of it...we have a nice curving strip in the front which I affectionately refer to as my "bikini lawn". Behind that, however will soon be 3 4' x 8' raised beds surrounded by bark and off to the side a fountain that I will plant geraniums and marigolds around. Then, in front around the ugly light pole that our housing development requires for every yard (ugh!) we have taken out a big section of grass where we plan to put in 3 rose bushes, some tall ornamental grass, lilies and maybe move the delphiniums from the back yard that never get enough sun to bloom.
We also bought a serpentine weeping cherry and a weeping pussy willow tree to plant in front.
It's all a torn up mess right now, but we're diligently working on it and hoping that it will be beautiful when we get it all done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
