A Walk Around my Yard, 12/13/08

It's been a mild day, with a high in the upper 50s. Cold weather is on its way, so Heidi and I enjoyed spending some time outdoors this morning before Larry and I cleaned the garage out enough for me to be able to put my car in it.

Here's the front of the "corner garden", lovely red fire hydrant and all! I have some planting to do this spring, as the narrow strip next to the curb was just dug up this summer, and I decided I didn't plant enough in it. (Added 8:09 p.m.- Larry asked me if I wanted to plant along the strip to the right of the fire hydrant, the part that makes the shape different from the bed across the way, which I'm not fond of. He said weeds were taking over, and I was tickled that he actually offered me more garden space.)

The bed to the left of the sidewalk was put in around 4 years ago when our neighbor lady across the street had to have her water main replaced, and they had to dig in that section of our yard, too. I wanted to make it bigger, but Larry at the time, wanted it even smaller. The area across the sidewalk was added the next year.

The view from the front, facing south:

There was a bush in the yard that we dug up when we moved in, because of all the suckers it was sending up. We turned it into a circle bed, about 6 to8 feet in diameter, and I planted mostly orange, red, and some yellow flowers in it. There was also a blue star amsonia that bloomed early in the spring. In June of 2008, I was able to convince Larry to extend the flower bed, making it the largest amount of grass reduction we've had (so far?). We rented a sod cutter with a friend and I was so tickled that there was no negotiating the size, as we have usually had to do. We didn't do a professional job, making nice curves, like I had envisioned, but hey, I was just so amazed as Larry was making roll after roll of sod. We were thankful our neighbor hefted it all away and planted it in his yard.

You can see the fence of the new bed on the far right, near the yew bushes that were already planted when we moved in. This maple tree was transplanted from a neighbor's yard when it was quite small, by Larry, when he was a boy, and his dad. I forgot to include the pics of the top part of it. The pots on the left are ours.

This is the front of the house, behind the tree. It gets some west sun, so the raised bed is a bit of a challenge. Sun plants get leggy, shade plants cook. Coral bells are slow growing here, but have survived several winters. The plants in the lower part do better because they don't dry out as much.

This is what you see if you turn around from the front bed previously pictured. The new bed is to the left, east. There is some kind of sweet potato vine that comes back every year, on the light post, and a yellow old fashioned type of clematis that is able share the space with it, because I cut the potato vine back a couple times a season.

Walking to the east, here's the new bed from the north:

I hope the bulbs and many annual seeds in here come up in the spring:

Continuing to walk east, you see the butterfly bush looking brown:

Turning left, to the north, is the east side of the house. When we first moved in, we had the egress window you can see with the plastic covered lattice lid. Larry's mom had a few peonies against the house that I let him talk me into giving away because he didn't like them there. (We kept the 3 in the front, though.) I was thankful I was able to talk Larry into having flowers around the egress window instead of replanting it with grass. The area was originally about 6 to 8 feet wide, and 5 feet from the house, less from the window opening. I can't remember how many seasons of, "Please can we make the area bigger for Mother's Day" digging/tilling

sod out it took to get the beds connected and clear across the house and back yard, but it was at least 3 or 4. Larry's been happy with each change so far, so it's all good. ;o) (I would like it to extend farther out from the house and fence, but it would be where a sidewalk would be, so I probably shouldn't do that.)

Continuing to walk north:

We had our shed repaired this summer, because the city would not let us replace it in the same spot. It's red or dark green in other pictures.

Turning around, facing south:

Going back north, across the driveway, and facing west from the street, here are some flower beds that have been there, the area by the street 2 years, and the one in front of the fence, 3 years. The vegetable garden behind the fence was there when Larry's parents lived here and gardened there. (My mil also gardened across the street to the east in the neighbors' yard.)

You can see the garage, which, unfortunately, is on the south side of the garden, and my lovely compost area in the back:

I've been picking kale, and it continues to hang in there:

Turning left to the south, there is the driveway, which has room for potted plants in the summer, and the shed, which I'm sad no longer has a downspout for catching rain water, and the back yard, and house:

I have a variety of kinds of mints in pots. I hope most of them survive the winter. You can see the deck, and the wrapped up furniture, but you can't see the snow shovels leaning against them. We have to use an S hook in the gate, because Heidi can open it in a flash and run off. She checks it, too, to see if we forgot.

This is a little herb garden next to the driveway on the west side of the lot. It's fenced in so Heidi can't jump into the neighbor's yard. I just made some cream cheese spread with chives, sage, and some of the Madeline Hill rosemary, which is supposed to survive in our zone. It's doing fine so far. This is facing south:

Facing north:

Facing west from the south end of the herb garden:

Turning to the east, reveals the deck my fil built, and we made even "lovelier" with lattice for clematis, morning glories, and moon flower vines to grow on.

The Sweet Autumn clematis is still holding its grip:

Walking past the grill, to the other side of the deck gets you to our small back yard. We put the gravel in ourselves when we couldn't get grass, sod or seeds to grow there. This is the east side of the deck. You can see the driveway to the north. We had pots lined up against the shed, thinking we would be replacing the shed. There is another small goldenrod not visible in the pic that got trampled by the guy who repaired the shed. I had moved part of it, so at least one if not both will come up in the spring. I want to plant more goldenrod, (not the invasive kind) some coneflowers and asters along the side and back of the shed.

This is looking to the east. There had been a 10 foot square dog kennel in this area that we took out in July for the shed repair. Hopefully Heidi has outgrown digging, because we do not plan on putting it back.

Larry added more picket fencing to keep Heidi from jumping over the fence.

Facing east and south, you can see the side yard and empty bird feeder Larry is going out to fill right now, with the seed in the ice cream bucket he had to bring inside because a squirrel had chewed through it.

Wow! This was supposed to be a simple tour, and I turned it into a history lesson! If you just looked at the pictures, you have taken a tour of my "Corner Garden" without commentary, and have seen how much grass my husband has been talked out of. I hope to have you back in the spring when plants are growing and blooming! If you want to see how the front yard looked the first part of July, click on this: Front Yard Pics