Yard Work

I've been working on my yard since my return from the US.  The previous owners either over planted or didn't keep up with the perennial beds.  They were a mess.  Last fall I cleaned out a truck load of plants.    The remaining plants that grew back are headed towards my sewage mound which I'm turning into a wildflower bed.  

This is the "cleaned" bed.  It took me about 6 hours to get all the weeds and plants out.  I'm leaving two rose bushes and the lillies.  Love lillies...

This is the sewage mound with sprayed grass and some of the perennials planted.  I plan to put down a wildflower seed mix on the rest.

This is the second bed that is still infested with weeds.  I need to move perennials, leave the lillies (they'll eventually end up in the other bed) and pull and spray the weeds.

This is my third perennial bed.  It was an overgrown mass of plants.  Because I managed to get most, it's now an overgrown mass of weeds.  I'll clean it up and begin the process of grooming it for other plants.  I haven't quite decided what I want to put there.

This is my other project.  There had been a junk shed here.  I moved a lot of junk and weeds from the area last year.  It's had two sprays this year.  Now I'll clean up the remaining weeds, removing the final bits and pieces of junk, put down some top soil and reseed it as grass.  Eventually I want to make it part of the dog run.  (I have enough panels.)

Here is my garden.  It's taken a beating with the weather we've had this year.  My poor corn is super stunted and some of my cucumber plants didn't survive.  I'll need to prune my tomato plants this week and give everything a shot of fertilizer.

This is one of my favorite plants.  I have two decks.  One north facing and one south facing.  This guy loves the shady north deck!

My favorite pansies.  Probably the only plant on my property that's doing well.  (Besides weeds...)

This little guy seems to prefer the cool rainy weather.  I think it's the pot.  I've decided next year the pot will get shade plants.

One of my front entrance barrels.  I put flax as the center piece but it HATED the rain and is quite stunted.

Love the colors here, but again with the rain they aren't as happy as they could be.  Time to deadhead...

This was one of my south deck "surprise" pots.  I had planted nicotia and wave petunias...  The nicotia must have been mislabeled because it was giant!  And the waves have done some very interesting things.  I put in a black petunia for interest but it's getting buried under the other plants.

Superman

My mom had had this brilliant idea to develop another flower bed along side my house.  My dad has a huge pile of sand.  Sand my mom wanted at my place.  The way the farm yard is landscaped she was able to back the truck up to the front lawn and push a wheelbarrow full of sand onto the box of the truck.  My place is flat.  Pancake flat.  Her idea?  Use a ramp to unload the full wheelbarrow so it could then be moved and dumped where the beds were to be made.  Sounds good in theory...

What really happened?

Well, standing in the box I turned the wheelbarrow and began to ease it down the ramp.  Mom, being mom, decide to "help".  Standing below the wheelbarrow she began pushing on it "to slow it down".  There I am.  Trying to keep the full wheelbarrow from flattening my mother.

Can you see where this is going?

Yes, mom jumps out of the way.  And I Superman off the edge of the truck.  Landing with my outstretched arm in the now stopped wheelbarrow.  The rest of my body piles up tangled with the arms of the barrow.  Wincing I untangle myself.

Yep, like a cartoon character I superman'd off the truck into a wheelbarrow of sand.

A couple of days later I went to the chiropractor.  Let's just say I'd been sore...  It turns out I have whiplash (who knew I flew that hard!)  and the connective tissue in my ribs is torn.  (I also have a lovely bruise across my chest.)  No running for 5 days!

The things I do...

Yard Eye Candy

Here's a sampling of some of my pots I've put together.  Love, love flowers.

Begonia

Pansies - remind me of Grandma.

One of my favorite pots.

Cheerful Wave Petunias.

Pretty contrasts.

Delicate and feminine.

The Imposter.  Mixed in with my pink waves.  Needed it's own home.

These are all freshly planted.  Once summer is in "full bloom" I'll take some fresh pictures to share with you.