360 Degree View of a Work in Progress

After Saturday's Swap, I still have not come down off of my Gardening High and in an effort to avoid doing real (aka office) work, I ran out and took these photos of my backyard. This is only the second year that I've had anything growing out there (literally) other than the mature Oaks.

So, I stood in the middle of the yard and snapped these this morning. It's still fairly early in the season and I expect things to fill in a lot more by September. Plus, I still have a kzillion more plants to stick in the ground. It should be exciting to see how things look in a few more months! Thanks again to all of you who have helped to improve my little patch of Earth.

This border needs a lot more work, including evergreen material to hide that ugly lattice.

The deck needs to be cleaned and stained. With any luck, that will happen this month.

The more prominent vine on the right is the thornless blackberry. Hiding to the left is a hardy kiwi.

The purple blooms are from a Malva which I started from seed last year. The vine on the far right of the fence is a seedless concord grape.

As a mainly 'organic' gardener, my turf in this spot is suffering from an invasion of white clover, chickweed, etc., as you can clearly see in this shot. Ugh. Corn gluten just cannot work miracles, I guess.

Those are peas and beans growing up the string trellis there and my vegetable patch is situated just on the other side of it. Oh, wait... No... There are no peas, beans, spinach, etc. because Mr. Groundhog accidentally devoured them a few weeks back! I will win this war. I don't know when nor how, but I WILL WIN.

It's no "Potty Shed" like HollyAnnS has, but it gets the job done.

One of these days, I WILL make all that unsightly debris in the background disappear. Poof, Be Gone.

*** POOF *** ... Fill In!

If only I could hit the Fast Forward button and make my other hollyhock seedlings catch up to this one. I'm tired of staring at the firewood.

Okay, that's all, Folks. Back to work now...

Most excellent! That is lovely!! I think you suffer from-'see the faults' syndrome. It's very common. Ask my teenager....
I don't think your lattice is all that horrible, but I'll buy that as a good excuse for more plant material and planted area.

Ah, yes, I am definitely guilty of that... I also should enter a Twelve Step program for Instant Gratificationists.

Oh I love the yard. It looks wonderful,
I like the progression Yucky under deck area hidden by ugly lattice, to be covered by evergreens and pretty flowers.
I don't think I have any actual grass growing in my front yard, I think it's all just mowed weeds. And the messy areas around here they decrease, expand and move. But they never, never go away.
Not only do I have a house and deck badly in need of staining but my lattice really is ugly thanks to dog Buddy who tried to chew his way out of the yard one day. So quite a bit of it is now covered with wire fence. How are those seedless Concords and are you bringing any starters to next years swap?

Question Number One - Why is it next year's swap. Why not something more like next week's or next month's swap?

That's a great idea. I can try my hand at propagating them by layering. I'll get on that this week if the vine will let me. I haven't tasted any grapes yet. I planted them a year ago and my Giant Flock of Squirrels or other varmits got to them before I could (yes, I even used netting on them!). =0

Forgot to mention, When the ground hog ate the first of my brand new Poppies I forgave her. She is young and not her fault, just didn't know any better. But when she came back and mulishly ate the just about ready to open flower right off the top. Well the nerve........
Although our yards look different I think we have similar issues.

wrightie: What a beautiful garden you have! All the new plants from the swap will feel right at home in your garden and will reward you with beautiful blooms and fantastic foliage!

Wrightie... love your yard! *Sigh...* I have earth envy! I live in a third floor apartment, with an 8x12 balcony as my garden. Don't get me wrong... I am blessed to have it, and I love my apartment, but I also long to have land to plant in...

*Sigh....* (again)

Thanks, VWR. You know, I can fully appreciate your situation as I have been there before myself. At least you do have a balcony though, which is more than I had. This is our first home - a real fixer upper - but it's been so much fun! I hope you get some Earth of your own very soon.

Took me five hours to powerwash the deck yesterday and I am sore. I'm dreading staining it next week. Anyone wanna come over to help? I'll make sure that your glass never empties...

Err... oh yeah, next week we're heading for NC to visit Jim's folks! So sorry... ;-)

I have to agree with the others regarding your back yard. It looks a lot better than mine does honey. Oh, I ought to get you some pics of my front yard that is in year number two of plans for a walk way. There are rocks beginning at the size of pea gravel up to large boulders. Rocks everywhere!!!

The heck of it is that John began digging the footers last winter and has blocked my having access to my front bed. He tells me it is too dangerous for me to be fooling around out there currently. I know the walk way will be lovely, but come on now folks, I am getting tired of waiting. I will have to say that he has been especially good about doing things around here. The work is never ending it seems and we keep adding new things to be done.

I was able to spend a few hours outside yesterday morning planting some of the lovelies that I got at the swap. I probably got about half of my booty planted and will be heading out shortly to make another dent. I will try to take camera so that I can show you my "rock garden." ha-ha Another poster here has asked for a picture of some of my red lily's too.

In case I haven't formally thanked those who so graciously shared their plants with me last weekend, thank you ever so much. The plant swap will definitely be a highlight of summer 2007.

A special thank you to Miata and Happy McComb for the Japanese Maple. My son came by on Friday and saw it and asked if I knew how much that would cost in a store. I told him that yes, I did know and I couldn't afford it. So, thank both of you lovely ladies for being so willing to share.

Alrighty, off to toil in the soil. Not really, I had a wonderful time planting yesterday morning. I hope that this note has found you all doing well and enjoying the weekend. I also hope that everyone will have a great week this week.

Ruby

Wrightie, I also like your yard! I like the way your patio flows right into the yard. My house is backwards. I live on a corner lot. The front door is on one street and the driveway is on the other, at the back of the house. From the deck you go right to the driveway. That is why I put a patio of the side of the deck with stairs. That is also where the watergarden is. My favorite place to sit and chill out.

You also have Grass with nice edging, "I'm green with envy" I have been working on flower beds for so long and trying to get the soil built up ( I have clay) that my lawn is weeds, but it is green and mowable. ; )

Happy Father's Day... to the gentlemen, and gentle men of our humble little group! May your day be filled with sunshine, love and laughter!

Karen

Thank you, Lady & Ruby. Ladygardener, I can totally relate to your clay problems. Somewhere around here is a thread that shows the Before picture of my place when we bought it four years ago (cottage gardening or landscape design maybe?). Suffice to say that it was nothing but compacted clay with nothing except a wee bit of moss growing on it. I have found that running a Core Aerator twice in Spring and Fall (rental tool) and then top dressing with pelletized dolomitic lime as needed and *lots* of good organic matter has made it possible to establish some turf out back. Speaking of edging ... those beds are badly in need of it. But, it's not going to happen today. I'm off to the barn to play with the horse.

Have a great Father's Day!

You have some nice shade there too, Wrightie. You've done a great job in just four years.

Thanks, Hart. Here's what the backyard looked like as recently as 2 1/2 yrs ago. I'm having so much fun!

http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=3035958

Wow! Now I'm really impressed. The yard looks a lot bigger now too with all your pretty plantings.

Thanks for the tip on the lawn, a landscaper told me about the lime, so we did that this spring. I guess I could have him run a Core Aerator this fall. I'll ask if he has one.

It's good to run it twice in the fall and twice in the spring when it's cool out; about one month apart between aerations and most important of all is to spread about a 1/4 inch of good organic matter over the ground following aeration. That's also the time to over-seed with your turf seed. I get my info. from one of the premier golf club superintendent's in the nation, who happens to also be an ol' pal of mine. I hope that is useful info. Best wishes.

Wrightie: Do you mean to say you core aerate FOUR times a year???

Well, the first couple years ... yes. But, you can see in the above link that my property was solid compacted clay, so it really really needed it.

From that picture, I can see why you aerated that much! Good job I got one answer to kiwi propagation question on the Fruits forum. Here http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/736913/:
I can add the bag to mine and cross my fingers again. Why don't they sell rooting hormone at CVS or Shopper's Food???? it's essential!

This message was edited Jun 18, 2007 10:04 AM

Sally, if you've got a willow tree, you can snip off a branchlet and chop it into 1 inch pieces, then brew up some "willow tea." Water in your cuttings with that... it's exactly the same thing as the powdered rooting hormone.

oh yeah duh, I have a pussy willow behind me that I've used.....

Wrightie, Re, deck staining. I'm still on the injured list but I'll sit in the shade drink your wine and talk while you work. How's that for help? ;}
Ruby, I wanted to say how much I enjoyed meeting you at the swap even though it seems we didn't get much talking time and Ric very much liked talking to John.

I'm with Holly on the injured list, and probably will be permanently now... but I'll BRING the wine, and whistle while you work!

8*)

Sounds like a party I'll bring the snacks.

Whatcha got? I love cheese with wine!

So when was it we're staining your deck wrightie???

Wow, you all get dinner and a show ;)

This message was edited Jun 18, 2007 2:40 PM