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.
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