Easter 2016

I don't have any plans for getting my crew together for Easter, maybe I'll do it in a week or two.  Despite my slackassedness my daughter showed up after church with her son.  YAY!!!  So grandma whipped out her camera and followed him around the yard.  200 pictures later (not exaggerating)... I plucked a few key shots.

This guy is "GB3" GrandBaby3 (#3 out of 4).  He's the only child of my daughter, 20 months old and is SO sweet. 

Grandma Garden

When we were looking for a house I really wanted a yard where I could construct a rambling flower garden.  Bam!  I landed a half acre, mostly lawn.   I had a vision of etching out several feet from the side of the house around the front, capturing the large shade tree.  It was to be a garden with walking paths in and around interesting things to look at and sniff, something for my grandkids to think back and remember.

So here we have my empty canvas...

But first my husband was hell bent on getting rid of the trees brushing up against the house.  I came home one day and my precious yard looked like THIS

 With the trees out of the way it opened up the side of the house.  There is a natural curve to the terrain that loops around the two stumps and the dogwood further down.

The previous owner did have a patch of iris and day lilies toward the back of the house.  I will eventually transplant them around the rest of the garden, but I have to admit the burst of color this spring was pretty stunning.

 

When we took down the trees we had a TON of wood chips.  Had we gone about this with better planning I would have dug up the grass, laid down a layer of something to block the weeds then pile on the woodchips.  Alas I had to scramble to move the chips into place so they just went on top of grass.  This will pose some very predictable problems later on.

In the front of yard I added stepping stones and a pretty heart plant hanger (found in the garage).  A busy hummingbird feeder and a nearly dead climatis that perked up after planting.

And then came the day Mr Tree Hater proclaimed that the roots are hitting the sewer and the 50 yr old oak tree and pretty shade tree need to come out.  I protested but money talks around here and the sewer line won out.  Dammit.

So in preparation, my mom and I dug up all of the bulbs we had planted a year earlier and moved them closer to the house.

Eventually my garden was "etched"

I ran out of stepping stones...

 And my hand-me-down stand for a bird bath stood without a bowl...

Then the ugly bumpy edging bricks that filled the yard were repurposed and laid on their side (turns out the mower can to over them fairly well.

Notice the huge scar my missing shade tree left behind?

 This spring the bulbs came up, a couple flowered.  The climatis took off like crazy in its new spot

Then my dogwoods bloomed - amazingly the pretty pink one is inside the garden

Oh hey, look we finally got a bowl for the bird bath

And then the grass came in

 It got tall and scraggly

So I spent endless days pulling and yanking grass.  I never did get it all.

Then that stupid climatis decided to die so I hung a fern in the heart.  AND THE DAMN THING CAME BACK TO LIFE.  

My mother-in-law moved and left me all of her bricks.  We laid them out along the side of the house as stepping stones.  This project is not complete, so I will have many more updates.  Just wait to see what we have planned for them.

I took our three tomato pots and filled them with flowers this year.  That was definitely a smart move adding color and archetecture to the garden.  OH, and look at the rocks!  Someone was tearing up their yard and asked if I wanted them - uh YES.

And Dahlia's bloomed!

This is the view from the rear of the house.  The boat definitely makes it a grandma garden - the whole goal for this to be for a place for the kids to wander and play and learn.

Directly behind the house is the rose garden and a "field" of black eyed susans.  They will eventually move around to the side of the house, but not this year.

A week ago we took down yet another tree, but definitely a good idea since it was dying - Look at that hollow stump!  I'm keeping this one and it will be a planter next year.

Last fall's pumpkins (four pie pumpkins and one jack-o-lantern) died a slouchy death on my front porch and their carcasses were escorted unceremoniously to lie in front of the day lilies.  I've enjoyed watching them sprout and now am leading their vines toward the front of the house

 And the grass is coming back

A fun little addition standing watch at the front of the house

 

 I'm having a lot of fun with this garden.  Other chores around the house and the rest of the yard keep me from really putting the time necessary to pull it together, but it's coming along.  I can't wait to see what it does next year!

First Frost

Since the first frost was predicted today I plucked all of the remaining tomatoes last night. I have five semi-red (as in barely blushing) sitting in the window. The rest sit in this bowl and I'm not sure if they'll ever make it to the table. At least they're not dead... yet.
This morning was a tad brisk, but not as cold (it seemed) as a few weeks ago. That is when I took my last walk for two weeks, gained nine pounds and my entire body started aching. Great, now I NEED to walk. Freaking lovely. What am I going to do when it gets REALLY cold? I am such a whiny wimp.

The first thing that struck me as I approached the park this morning is that in a few months kids will be attempting to sled in this field with nearly as much snow (read below about the lack of snowfall in the area).

My sister-in-law who lives in North Dakota roared with laughter when she saw how little snow was on the ground for this sledding expedition. It was January 25th this year and the first snow of the season. The hill swarmed with kids attempting to make feeble use of their sleds. Only days later a substantial snow fell (about six inches), closing schools and allowing for a terrific sled outing (I didn't take the camera that time).Further down the path there were three trees actively dropping leaves. It was pretty cool. So on my snazzy new pocket camera I was able to capture a little video WITH sound. There is a lot of clicking sounds going on, that's the camera trying to auto focus, but over that you can hear the leaves detaching from the tree and falling to the ground.

Totatoes

This is the first year that I am growing tomatoes. Well, let me qualify that, voluntarily growing tomatoes. There was one year that a tomato fell out of the trash can and its seeds sprouted in the spring. Conveniently they came up next to a chainlink fence so I was able to tie them as they grew. I think I got ONE tomato off the fence that year. Possum and squirrels beat me to the punch on the others.This year it was decided that we will grow tomatoes. We had two large terra cotta planters and one smaller plastic one. I found the perfect place with full sun to put them on the south side of the house. I added a bell pepper in two of the pots. I also planted three marigolds in each. Unfortunately we started late in the season and got the plants in the soil in early June.

I watched and watered all through July. They sprouted up like weeds and blossoms all over the place. The smaller planter was not draining at all and the tomato plant was dying. It was moved into a larger container and immediately came back to life.
With a quirky growing season I haven't harvested many tomatoes. They are ripening up to two at a time. The vine is loaded with future tomatoes, hopefully an early frost doesn't hit us because I could easily have tomatoes well into November.