Backyard Adventures Day 1

I had an awesome day working in the yard on Sunday, getting up close and personal with a few of the thriving weeds, some stray grass, some dead stuff from last year's garden and I planted a few things too! Read on for my first Gardening Show and Tell...

A weed is just a plant whose virtue has not yet been discovered. Emerson said it. I didn't. But if anybody out there knows what this 'plant' is called and what its purpose is other than to annoy the crap out of me, please, please tell me.

Thankfully, there aren’t too many other weeds to pull, just mostly grass and clover.

My first Honeysuckle bloom!

With all the rain we’ve had in the last 2 weeks + the warm temperatures, I decided I’d better get busy with my garden tending ‘cause Mother Nature ain’t waiting for me. You know what I mean? The Hostas started coming up about 3 weeks ago!

I still had some dead stuff to pull and clean up from last year.

Besides the obvious cues from Mother Nature, I’m definitely behind on my gardening when you compare it to the Yard Wars. The Yard Wars are a kind of Chess game played by grown men with their lawn mowers. No words are spoken, no bets are waged, just the incessant hum of lawn mowers nearly every day somewhere in the neighborhood. My next door neighbor actually mowed his yard 2 days in a row! Did it need it, you wonder? No. My husband hereto known as the Yard Master mowed our lawn twice in one week. Did it need it? No, probably not. I only give the Yard Master a pass because he was going to travel early in the week and wouldn’t be able to mow until the following weekend.

We have two small beds on each side of the house. I always liked picket fences, so after we moved in years ago, we replaced the 6’ wooden fence and gates with PVC picket and gates. I’ve had a heck of a time getting something to “stick” and thrive in these two spots. The one pictured above with the oh-so-lovely weeds had a trumpet vine for the last 2-3 years, which I loved because they attract hummingbirds – which I also love but the Yard Master did not. He complained that the vines spread too much and made it hard to mow. Hello! That’s what it’s supposed to do—it’s a vine. So, after much complaining and his agreement to put up a lovely trellis over the gate, I agreed to let him remove the offending trumpet vine.

This year I thought I would try Sweet Peas in this bed.

They tend to spread and vine and they smell delightful, but at least if they get unruly, I can tame them without the need of a saw or ax! Yep, the Yard Master had to use a shovel, saw and ax to terminate the trumpet vine.

I Hate LAVA ROCKS! One of the previous owners of our house had some kind of fetish with red lava rocks.
He put them in every single bed, nook and cranny he could find. They are everywhere! I throw them away, and more come back. It's a vicious cycle.

I put out 2 Hummingbird feeders, set up the jelly feeder for the Orioles and one other seed feeder for the Finches and such. On Sunday, I cleaned out the big squirrel-proof feeder, set up another feeder with the gourmet blend and an orange nectar feeder for the Orioles too. Altogether, I have 7 different feeders. I just love the birds! We love to sit on the deck out in the Spring and Summer to listen to and watch the birds. Now that I think of it, I like the sounds of Summer as much as the flowers and the warm temperatures. I still haven’t seen a Hummingbird but I did see 2 Monarch butterflies on Monday. What birds have you seen so far this Spring? We spend a LOT of time in our backyard during the summer. We are blessed with an Eastern exposure and a covered deck. A covered deck is almost as good as a Florida Room and a hot tub, but I’m happy just the same. We have 2 major flower beds: one surrounds the deck and a 60’ x 3’ wide bed runs along one fence. I’ll draw you a sketch and show you the layout in my next garden post. This bed has the Hostas from the picture above, daisies and some mums. Occasionally I will plant a few colorful annuals that bloom early to attract the hummingbirds, but I don’t have a lot of maintenance in this bed.

My Favorite Sounds of Summer (in no particular order):
• birds
• Wind Chimes
• kids playing outside
• The Ice Cream Man!

My husband got me these as an anniversary present a few years ago. To hear the sound, click here.

What are some of your favorite sounds of Summer?

I even laid my late kitty’s grave marker. We buried her on a warm day last January in her favorite flower bed. It’s the spot where she did most of her meditating. : ) I always plant Impatients in this bed because it’s shady and probably also the reason she liked it too. She lived to be 13+ and I still miss her. To see her picture click here.

I was feeling a little bit guilty about not going to the gym on Sunday, but after all the lifting, hauling, pulling—not to mention the butt load of squats (pun intended) and the soreness in my legs and hind quarters AND the sweat (ick), I think I more than made up for an hour and a half at the gym. I made a deal with myself on Saturday: I can go to the nursery and pick up some plants, but only after I went to the gym. So I worked out, and then went over to Larry’s Nursery in Riverside. I knew I wouldn’t get the whole yard done, so I only bought a few annuals for the beds, but also a few plants for the pots around the deck (because I’m so excited about the warm weather, I can’t wait for things to bloom-I want some color NOW!

I bought 2 hanging pots. This one:

And this one:

I got 4 of these adorable Pansies for a couple of pots. These Pansies look like happy little faces, don’t you think?

I hope you enjoyed this time in the garden and I'd love to hear about your garden too. Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

I know I've been on "radio silence" for the last couple of weeks. We've had some tragedy in my family and we've been dealing with some pretty tough emotions. I've wanted to share, but just needed to process a little before I spill. So...I will share, just not today.