in the garden

i can go overboard on the scrapbooking, i know. but come may or june, i fight myself to sit down at my desk and create. i want to be outside weeding, planting, watering, or just enjoying my yard. we've been here in colorado for 6 years, and my backyard has changed a lot over that time. when we got here, it was a square of lawn bordered by 2 feet of rock. there were big ugly piney bushes in each back corner and two lilac bushes along the back fence. 

summer #1 (2005): looked at the yard and wished it was pretty. did plant an anabelle hydrangea and some tomato plants. fell in love with the front walk garden's rose bush. 

rose bush in the front walk garden. the only thing left by previous owners that i love in this yard.

summer #2 (2006): half of left side rock moved to side of the house, bed expanded out two more feet, amended the sticky clay soil with clay busting products. karl forester grasses, day lilies, russian sage, and tickweed planted. bed mulched with beauty bark, much prettier and retards weeds so much the better.

shirley daisies, tickweed, russian sage, and day lilies

summer #3 (2007): the other half of left side rock moved, bush rose, burning bush, delphiniums (major fail), and daisies planted. took out lawn in the back left corner and with the help of husband and kids, built a raised garden bed, L shaped 80 square feet for fabulous vegetable gardening. brought in gorgeous soil to fill said bed.

shirley daisies from my mom's garden. these beauties are amazing.

front walk garden

summer #4 (2008): did nothing in the way of improvement in the backyard, just maintained. did work on the front yard a bit, added a couple of rose bushes (both have died since then), a sedum, some moonbeam coreopsis, and rudbeckia. 

rudbeckia 2009

summer #5 (2009): tackled the back fence. with the help of my dad, we moved all the rock, the side of the house is stocked w/ rock now. moved one of the lilacs, it wasn't doing well and didn't survive the transplant. amended the soil. planted a couple of rose bushes (happy to report they are both still alive), some yarrow, rudbeckia, jupiter's beard, silver mound, ran out of money and time. i also let a volunteer sunflower TAKE OVER the vegetable garden. and take over, it did. didn't get much in the way of produce that year, but got some amazing sunflowers! the plant was HUGE. honestly 7 feet tall with a gazillion arms. it was a monster.

working on sunflair :) this is the sunflower monster in 2009

vegetable garden overrun by sunflower tree and volunteer marigolds: 2009

summer #6 (2010): worked on the back fence a bit more, added my 1928 bathroom sink to the garden as a decoration, surrounded with day lilies. added a birdbath to the left garden.  went to switzerland for two weeks, didn't do much else in way of improvement back there. did replace a rose bush in the front yard w/ a lime boxwood. that died too. moonbeam coreopsis started to die away. rudbeckia never flowered. wasn't the best summer for gardening. :) sunflower babies from last year's garden took over again.

lime boxwood, major fail 2010

summer #7 (2011): that's this summer and i've been UBER busy outside. last week i added some spring color to the left garden, it's gorgeous from july onward, but the spring is just green leaves, so i got some silver tansy (mini daisy-like flowers), geum, catmint, hardy twinspur, california red poppies, a foxglove (annie went shopping with me and wanted it. i'm not a huge lover of foxglove but wanted to share garden ownership w/ her this year--i have a funny foxglove story to share later...), a snow mound bush, and left over salvia (again, not my favorite annual, but annie liked it so much) from the deck pots i finally planted in this year. i've been bad the past few years, leaving the pots sad and empty. this year they are filled with red salvia, orange mexican zinnias, and white allysum, all but one, which is a hodge podge of leftovers from the front and back pots of annuals. it's kind of pretty actually. i didn't have room in the left garden to add all this, so i took the opportunity to move and divide some of the plants. the shirley daisies had expanded from one mid sized pot from my mom to a 4x4 square of splendor that has won the heart of kelly and annie more than i realized. i promised both of them that the daisies will bloom this year and will continue to expand in their new homes (three groups to the front walk flower garden, and hopefully another to the back fence garden),  i didn't know how much they cared. it's kind of nice. i also moved a russian sage to the back garden. it's not taken to the move as well, but i keep watering it and am sure it will perk up. one of day lilies moved too, filling in around the bathroom sink (lost one of those from last year), and it's very happy. the back fence garden is nearly complete with the additions noted and the following: more rudbeckia, a mid sized cranberry cotoneaster bush, some more geum, more silver tansy, and i filled the sink with wave petunias and potato vine, excited to see how that does. it should be really pretty, pink and green spilling over the edges. the sink needs a mirror now. i know it's weird, but it does. i have a lone bush that needs a home, it's lime leaf blue beard and i couldn't resist. i think i'll begin on the right fence garden. that means moving rock again and pulling up grass. i really, really, really want to cut down the overgrown piney bushes. this may be the year. when it snows, they do not do well. the snow pulls the branches down and they look like they will break, but never do. 

can you tell i love working in the yard? oh and i also managed to get the vegetable garden in last week. i had some sweet little helpers, thanks to the berry family's service day on thursday. little merik, karma, and maisley, along with mom and dad shawntae and pat, helped me finish weeding the raised beds and plant my tomato, cucumbers, zucchini, and herb plants. we'll maisley just ate the dirt, but it was entertaining. shawntae's such a good mama, she's teaching those kids well.

i need to clean up the yard, then i'll add some new pictures.