Fourth Year 2007

This will be my fourth year in my garden.

So far this spring I have put in a raised bed in the veggie garden.. last fall I planted garlic and they are up and growing. The rain has been consisitent and often... which is great!!! I pruned back the roses and they are showing buds. The peonies are full of blooms. The lilacs have already bloomed out, plan to prune this spring. The white lilac is finishing up. And the Hydrangea was FULL, too full, will want to prune a little so it's not so top heavy.

Heavy pruned the rose of sharon and the currant bushes in the back yard. The Iris are big and strong this year.. what with all the snow and moisture to get the blooms really heavy this year. I had a full garden of volunteer (reseeded) bachelors buttons, which was nice, but some reseeded to the point of messy.. cause they clustered around the iris. Unfortunately, with my busy schedule I haven't been able to get out and clean them out. It looks untidy and messy. Want to work on that this weekend.

Bindweed is still my nemisis.

The pond is doing great. I reworked the waterfall and have a slow leak, which I will need to look at.. but have left it alone for now.. need to spend my time on other things. Planted my pond and bog garden last weekend. Still need to plant the front of the pond.. and more in the perennial bed.

Planted my tomatoes with Wall o Waters. Put in peas and carrots and beets... just now starting to sprout. Still need to put in the other veggie plants and plant other veggie seeds. Putting in some flowers and arranging the plantings to take advantage of the "companion" planting theory. This is the year I want to work harder on the veggie garden. Put in one raised bed with plans to put in three more. Eventually I want to put in a raised bed for the asapargus bed and replace the rasied bed that was in place when I bought the house.. wood has rotted. I would also like to get rid of the big metal shed and put in one or two rasied beds in the corner with a small shed against the fence. I don't need that much space and it seems to be taking up a lot of garden room.. plus the shed is an ugly metal/ rusty structure. Would rather put in a small shed and get rid of the mower and snowblower, since I don't use either one. I use a push rotary mower so I don't need the big space.. plus there is room in the garage. It would look cleaner and I would have a nice view of the lilacs that are stuffed behind the garden shed right now.

PROJECT Plans for this summer:

I already covered this during late winter as I impatiently waited for spring to arrive.

Some new ideas.. and to risk repeat. The SE corner still needs to be finished up. Put in some trellis work and extend the hieght of the fence, planting some vines which will give it a nicer, enclosed affect. Cut a few of the lower branches on the pine tree and plant hostas.. plant a few more perennials.. for the moongarden.. last year I planted some plants that are not "moongarden" plants/ color, will move them later and replace with white or pastel plants. I was sitting in my backyard the other night and realized, yes, I do want to put in a moon garden so that is what I am focusing on for the raised bed area.

Plant around the front of the pond.. small clammering plants/ perennials for some/ annuals for fill. Move the blocks away from the back fence.. use for walkway in veggie garden.. and then plant sunflowers among the strawberries... and hang bird houses along the back fence and a few in the SE corner. Hang hummerbird feeders/ oriole feeders.

Of course finish up planting the veggies.. corn/melons/squash.

Clean up and plant the side flowerbed. Replace the dying rose in the front.

Plant some flowers along the bottom of the shrubs (rose of sharon and currant). Figure out what I want to do with the backyard.. grass? Groundcover? Path? not sure yet. Wooden walkway? with plants along side? May not get this done this year. At the end of the yard, in front of the veggie garden I want to put a statue of some sort.. with two plants on either side.. roses? fruit trees? ornamental grass? Something for just purely ornamental value at the end of the yard... a focal point from the pond.. from my bedroom window.

Finish off the patio area.. (found out Lowe's no longer carries my bricks.. ) I will need to find another source or a compatible brick that will work with what I already have!!!! Damn!!!! Also want to put in a wood deck off the kitchen patio. Put up a wall at the end of lower patio.. with a bench seat and overhang for plants and bird feeders to the sides. For privacy and the feel of an outdoor room.

At the end of the patio to the side I want to put in another small seating area.. where there are rocks at this time.. a concrete stamped area.. with a raised planter arched around the area... leading to the fruit trees (espaliers) of apple/ peach/ cherry/ etc. whatever will grow in Colorado. Which means I might have to move the compost area.. or find a nicer looking bin.. maybe set up two small ones in each side of the yard.

For the front yard, the only thing I want to change out is the rock garden.. add some larger rocks.. and silt. With a stronger variety of rockgarden plants.

Doubt if I will get all of these done before the end of the summer, but I love keeping the big picture in focus so that I know where to go with the little pictures.

Going to be busy, again, this summer.

Third Year In My Garden

Coming into my third year.. I still don't feel that the yard is "mine". It still belongs to the previous owner, and perhaps, a part of it always well belong to her. Sometimes I wish I could meet her, or correspond with her, tell her how much I appreciate the work and time she put into the garden.

This spring I dug a pond.. with a little help from the kids.. oval shape and 2 1/2 ft deep. For the area I don't know if I could have made it any bigger or different.. size and location determined that for the most part. But what a wonderful addition to the yard. I can see it from my kitchen through the patio door.. and it is positioned right off of the back patio. I enjoy the water flow of the waterfall.. one thing I might want to rework at some point is the level of the pond... it is not level on all sides, so I cannot completely fill the pond on all sides to hide the liner.. but sometimes the pond consumes too much of my time and I don't get to the other areas of my yard.

I also put in a bog garden (with perforated liner) behind the pond so that I can put in marginal plants and bog plants. One concern is that a lot of high moisture loving plants also prefer shade.. which this area of the pond does not have.. so I have to watch what I plant in the area as they can become scorched. I planted my pond plants too early.. put them in and then got a cold night that set the plants back. My lily did not bloom, but I am hoping that this year it will (07). The other water plants came along nicely.. wind was an issue with the taller plants. About a month after I put in the pond I applied at Tagawa garden center, and got the job in ponds/ houseplants. YEAH!!! I have learned so much about ponding.

The rest of the summer I, again, put in a veggie garden, tried to plant later in the season so that I could harvest in the fall when the kids are home. Tried fall planting but didn't get it harvested. I have not had good success with my veggie garden. Disappointed. Watering consistently is a problem I have.. heat. As always I make a promise to do things differently "next year".

I laid flagstone in the corner of the yard with thyme between the stones. This is a nice seating area.. I want to put up a trellis for vines and plant more plants in the corner. (Next Year). In the heat of the day I was moving hot, heavy flagstone. It got to be a labor intensive job... still not quite finished.. need to fill in some areas between the flagstone and pick up a few small pieces to complete the area leading up to the pond. The thyme by the small stream grew in wonderfully. Planted some perennials in the raised bed. Still have things to work on this "next year". But I like how it is all coming together.

My roses had two wonderful bloom times this year. During the heat of the summer they slowed down on blooming. I finally feel like I am taking ownership of my yard. As I tend the yard and make it "mine". I love it more and more every year.

So many things I still want to do.. it will take time. But I love it.