More Landscaping Update

Well, we're rushing around getting ready for the movers to come tomorrow, but I wanted to put up a few last photos to remind myself of some of the landscaping we've done since last summer. We wanted to do much more, but then found out we were moving. I would have liked to till up the garden area and really plant it, but just had time to clear out the brush, pruned up the blackberries and raspberries and put in a few heirloom tomatoes and a compost bin.

BEFORE garden area

AFTER garden area

AFTER garden area with compost bin

Last Fall front flower bed after a lot of work

Last Fall side flower bed after a lot of work

This Spring flower bed after some plantings and mulch

The plantings don't really show in these photos since they are small, but I hope to come back someday and photograph them when they are bigger. You can't really see the hardy roses I put in or all the starts of flowers my friend, Marie, gave me. You can just see in the side yard how well the irises seem to be doing since I transplanted them from other places in the yard last fall.

Update on Gardening

Those of you who have been following my blog know that we moved from Nevada to Utah this summer. We purchased a house that needs some work and which has an overgrown/neglected yard. We are slowly making the changes and repairs we want to make. Many aren't worth photographing. A lot of light fixtures have been or are in the process of being changed or changed out. We're getting odds and ends of things done. The garage has been mostly organized and now my husband can actually park his truck in there for the winter. Some pictures are finally getting put on the walls, shelves have been added, all the closets and guest room have been painted and a bunch of yard work has been done. This week the energy audit guy is coming to inspect the house and give us advice.

Here are a few changes I have pictures of from my flower bed project. I'm afraid they aren't very spectacular as they are mostly pictures of dirt.

Before. Front door area.

After. This was all grass and weeds. Now it's waiting for spring planting. I put some bulbs in too. This bed wraps around two sides of the house--see following pictures.

After. Terraced and waiting for spring planting.

Waiting for spring planting. Once plants are in I will mulch it all. This was all grass and weeds and lumps of decomposing landscape fabric and mulch, roots and construction rubble.

I dug up sad looking irises from too shady places in the yard and replanted them here. I hope they look perkier in the spring.

I dug up this black edging and recycled it from other places and greatly increased the size of the flower beds. We're trying to get rid of some of the grass. This bed was half grass and mostly weeds and rocks. Now it's rich with compost and ready for spring planting. This bed will get herbs since it's close to the back door and kitchen. The sickly mum and coral bells were there already.

Sue

A few things to do . . .

We recently purchased a new house with .4 acres in what I describe as a somewhat "jungly" condition. One of our neighbors mentioned that the previous owner rarely ever mowed.  We have our work cut out for us, but we are looking forward to making improvements. We've been living either in the desert or in an apartment for the last 7 years and haven't even owned a mower in that time, so this is a big change for us.

Here are some "before" photos of upcoming projects:

This is what I call  "the scary slope"  in front of the house. It's got various types of trees, a lot of crown vetch, an assortment of weeds, some junipers and who knows what else is hidden in there? The neighborhood cats enjoy stalking prey here and I'm scared to know what exactly lives in the mess a few yards from my front door. This photo was taken after my husband went after it with a machete. It was spilling out over the concrete making the sidewalk impassable.

This is the official garden area. This is after I spent an hour or more digging out buried tomato cages and pruning back some blackberry canes.  It's still a tangled mess that needs many more hours of work.  I plan to make a compost bin in one corner and a small salad/herb garden and flower cutting garden in the rest--nothing too ambitious.

I call this one the "hidden spruce."  Our yard slopes up in back so that this beautiful blue spruce could be seen from the back of the house nearly at eye level if the scrub oak wasn't in the way. It will be trimmed back a little. My husband already trimmed back some of the small branches.

And this is the front door with a patch of eroding dirt between the sidewalk and the garage and a patch of weeds on the other side. I'm thinking that a smallish conical tree with blue-green foliage on either side would be nice to set off the entrance. I also want to improve the curb appeal by sinking flagstones into the sod in front of the picture window to make a patio seating area to take advantage of the splendid mountain views from there.

The view.  No need to improve that.

Sue

Rose of Sharon

 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. Song of Solomon 2:1

As I have mentioned before, we have a new house with a big yard. We have an entire hedge of Rose of Sharon and a few others scattered around. They grow tall and make a nice visual barrier between us and the street. Rose of Sharon are a type of hibiscus. The ones we have are a pink doubled flower variety that looks much more like a rose flower than the single flowered type. They are blooming right now in August and should continue through September.

This bee was very busily wedging himself between the petals.

Just can't get enough.

I love the mountain view.

Sue

Happy Mothers Day

These are blooming in my garden this week:

Sue