Tour of Front & Side Yards

While we have made some progress, we obviously still have a long way to go to make the front and sides of our house look good.  I hope our neighbors will continue to be patient!

First up: West Side Yard

So this view hasn't changed much since last fall, except the huge debris pile has been taken to the dump(all the cut-down trees, pulled out juniper/cottoneaster bushes, and wood pallets).

We really want to finish the siding, for one thing.

Also, I think we'll probably plant grass and have a long flowerbed close to the house, hopefully with some tall-growing shrubs/small trees to break that big blue expanse a little.

We still plan to level off the dirt pile with the neighbor's yard down below, then perhaps put in either retaining wall (or something) up higher where ours slopes up to meet the gate.

We've even considered putting 1-2 extra windows in the master bedroom and playroom to make it look better on this side of the house, but that would be awhile down the road.

These raspberry canes will all be moved to the backyard when we transplant the others.

I would occasionally remember to give them a little spray of water through the fence, but not very often. And the berries got pretty dusty right here. Plus, they just don't look very good right here all by themselves. And they would get in the way of the new bed/shrubs.

Front yard

 I realized I had never taken a picture of our new retaining wall, built last fall.

So here it is, from across the street.

This is where we've seen the most progress.

Also, between these two walls is the flower bed mentioned in my chore list, that needs to be filled-in with dirt, then planted. I want to put a couple of peonies in, some purple coneflowers, perhaps some daisies, and I haven't decided what else. Maybe the lavender from over by the front steps.

I also want to plant some that will trail over the sides of the bottom wall.

We are planning to put in a sidewalk in front of the walls, and widen the driveway.

Which means I'll need to move the bulbs I planted around the mailbox, unless we leave a little planter box square around it, or something.

The ground that is left after sidewalk/driveway go in will also be for shrubs/flowers.

I'm thinking of doing something very shallowly-rooted, like irises from my back flowerbed, since all the power/utility lines run underground right there.

I probably need to wait until the hardscaping is done, though, so my plants don't get trampled in the process.

 These rose bushes really need pruning back.

Maybe I'll get to them before baby?

Then I want to move them, as well. We will probably be changing this entryway at some point--tearing out the stairs and putting in rock steps up to a wider porch...or something. In any case, the rose bushes would have to be moved at that point, anyway. I've thought about putting them in front of our retaining walls, where they start to curve back toward the house.

Only problem is--the water meter is right there in the middle of everything.

These next pictures are from the flowerbed under the eaves in front.

I think all three of these scraggly little shrubs need to be torn out.

Looking back up top at the view from across the street, it looks really strange and unbalanced to have the big bushy evergreen next to the steps, then these three small shrubs, which barely come up to the window.

 I think for anything to really live and do well right here, the bed will need to be extended out by another 1-2 feet, so whatever I plant will not be hidden under the eaves.

Right now I'm thinking either evergreen shrub needs to come out, or I need to put one bigger shrub in on the other side of the window (or small tree, perhaps) that will balance it out. It would need to be roughly the same size and visual heft, which could be hard to do.

If we pulled out the evergreen shrub, or transplanted it elsewhere (maybe a good candidate for the west-side yard?I would still probably put one larger something to the left of the windows.

At the moment I'm thinking of maybe a Japanese maple, or smaller tree like that.

East yard

I didn't take a picture of the main part of this side. It's a bit depressing.

Our current thoughts are one retaining wall running back to the fence.

Grassy slope from house down to wall, with 2-3 half-circle planting beds filled with shrubs/small perennials. Grass or gravel for the flat part as alternative parking pad.

Until all or any of that gets going, here's what's growing right up next to the house:

About the same assortment as last year: irises, tulips, with some wild daisies thrown in.

These will all be transplanted--probably to one of the new planter beds, once those get put in.

With our garden beds done, we're hoping to make some good progress on the rest this year.

Some decent curb appeal would be nice, as would a finished look.

Spring Blooms & Chores

After another cold and snowy/rainy week last week (except for Tuesday, the one warm day), this week is supposed to warm and beautiful all week! I'm so glad!

Today was a gorgeous spring day. Probably in the 60's. We were outside without jackets on all afternoon and even the mud has dried up a little.

Chore: weed flowerbed and prune raspberries

(mostly done!)

Despite the awesome weather, my motivation has taken a nose-dive this last week before baby.

I kept myself going on the weeding by telling myself that 5 minutes of spring weeding, when everything is tiny and pulls up easily, is worth an hour of summer weeding, when you have to fight for every one.

I was able to get about half the bed weeded, (yup, the same half I always do--rasberries over to the mockorange bush), and the winter debris cleaned out. At least that half is looking good.

I have a little bit more cleaning up to do at the very back of the raspberry patch--a few more weeds (though I got almost all of the morning glory out and a couple of huge dandelions--YEAH!) and 1-2 more dead canes to prune out. We have several tall, healthy-looking canes getting ready to leaf out soon.

I think we'll have a good crop this year.

I still want to move them over by the fence, but I'll need Jason's help for that.  

 These are cheering me up right now.

The hyacinths smelled so good while I was sitting there weeding today, and all three flowers had several bees on them the whole time.

There are several more daffodils about to bloom, too. Hooray!

Once we get the raspberries moved, I want to get a pretty shrub in that space, and another one in front of our bedroom window. I will probably need to shift some of the irises to fit the one in under the window, but the bed desperately needs some height and variety!

 These little purple flowers are just opening up on the slope.

I think they must be the 'Chinodoxa'.

On the left, in this picture.

Small patches so far, but they are still brightening up the slope-side view just a little. I'm hoping they'll spread a little each year.

Slope work

I noticed a few more bulbs making progress with today's warm weather.

These were on the slope, behind the shed.

Looking back at last year's posts, I think they are both tulips.

They look so striking with the multi-colored leaves.

Geraniums

I finally got started on moving these geraniums out of the back flowerbed, and onto the slope.

As I started digging them up, I realized they must have really needed dividing anyway. Several of the tufts of leaves were connected to a big, mostly rotten stem/root about a foot long. I broke off all but about 4-5 inches on each one and replanted them in the little groups you can see, above.

I dug up a bunch of dead grass to put them in. Not sorry about that at all! I like the contrasting shape of their leaves back there. Their rounder shape echoes the heuchera up higher.

There is still a good-sized patch to dig up in the flowerbed. Besides the fact that I just ran out of time, I also want to wait a bit and see where the bulbs come up that I planted last fall, since I didn't really mark the locations at all. I wouldn't want to dig up any of those in my zeal to replace ugly dead grass with fresh green geraniums.

I'm not sure that they will thrive back there, but if they don't, they'll be easy to pull out and replace. And for now, they already make it look tons better!

Spring Veggies In!

I saw online that today's weather was supposed to be gorgeous, so yesterday the kids and I stopped by SYG, our favorite (maybe only?) local nursery and bought onion sets, seed potatoes, and some new carrot, pea, and beet seeds. Oh, and some violas and pansies, just because.

The morning didn't start off very promising, but I was determined to get this done, and it wasn't raining, so we put on some layers and went for it. So glad I did! 

It was hardly windy at all and continued to warm up through the day, as promised.

As a result, middle terrace is completely planted with our spring veggies!

Cross that off the "to do before baby" list!

 On the left: peas

I've got the stakes up, as you can see. I still need to add twine or netting for a trellis.

I've got netting somewhere, I just didn't take the time to find it today. Planting was first priority!

I was going to do an "L" shape for the trellis, but with the curve of the bed, the triangle made more sense. So there are actually peas planted on all 3 sides, and in the middle of the triangle.

Here's what I put in:

"Super Snappy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 65 days

"Little Marvel Pea" (seed purchased yesterday): 62 days

--bushy vine w/ heavy pod set

--shelling

"Sugar Daddy" (seed 3-4 yrs old): 74 days

--resistant to powdery mildew and pea leaf roll virus

Not sure what percentage of the older seed will germinate. If I've got some big bare spots, I've got more I can put in--plus I found a few more seed packets in my gardening bag from last year that didn't make it back to the official seed box. Oops!

Middle: potatoes

So, I did the square foot gardening method (digging a hole), rather than the make a hill method. Just because that's what I'm more familiar with. I think this middle terrace is the biggest; even so, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I could fit in. I bought 5 1/2 lbs of seeds potatoes and it worked out just right for the 12 holes. The kids were helping me pick them out, and so we ended up with a couple of surprises: a red variety, and a purple variety that I didn't get the names of. 

Going from left to right, vertical rows: 

Row 1: Yukon Gold

Row 2: Yukon Gold

Row 3: top 2 russet, bottom (closest to blocks) a red variety

Row 4: top 2 russet, bottom a purple variety

Right side: onions

Again, I was surprised at how many onions fit into this space. I bought 2 bags that each had 80 sets in them, and when I got home I thought I would have WAY too many. I used up all but 1/2 of one bag.

So the left side, close to the potatoes: 'White Ebenezer'--good for cooking (it says)

right side, closer to the walkway: 'Yellow Stuttgarter'--good for slicing and storage

I've never heard of either variety. I should have probably grabbed some 'Walla Walla Sweet', but oh well. Maybe next year. We'll see how these do, and how we like them. We'll have plenty!

Along the front of the whole bed I planted 2 rows of carrots.

The left side of the bed is 'Scarlet Nantes': 65 days, sprouts in 7-21 days, 6" bright orange carrots

Right side is 'Tendersweet': 70 days, sprouts in 15-25 days, up to 10" carrots 

I'll have a lot of thinning to do on the carrots, as I had my little helpers sprinkling seeds along with me.

I did not end up planting any beets. I was going to put them by the peas, but with the change in trellis shape, didn't have the room. I'm sure there will be room on one of the other levels if I want to put some in later. I'm not going to worry about it for now, though.

We didn't even water them, since it's supposed to rain the rest of the week.

Most importantly, it's DONE! It can rain for the next 2 weeks if it wants to!

I'm hoping that by the time we need to plant the warm weather stuff, I'll be recovered enough to get out and do that, too. Baby should be a little over a month old by that point, so if I can fit it in between feedings and naps, we'll be good to go.

Crocuses and Crazy Weather

They opened up! Hooray!

A little patch of sunshine on the slope.

Our weather this weekend has been CRAZY!

Saturday was warm and sunny. Spring was in the air. We had a bit of rain in the afternoon.

Today we woke up to snow and sleet blowing sideways!

Blizzard conditions, though none was sticking.

By this afternoon the wind had mostly died down, and we had patches of blue sky and sun, interspersed with 2 or 3 hailstorms.

Lesson learned (again): don't pin any hopes on the weather, because it will change in an hour.

Spring Bulbs Coming Up

Back flowerbed:

 I think these are both tulips.

 Hyacinths! I had forgotten about them.

Plus a few daffodils peeking up behind them.

 By the raspberries: more tulips, maybe?

On the slope:

 Yellow and white crocuses about to bloom.

Hooray!

If you look closely, you can see a few little green shoots on the left, and on the right, between the dead pine needle fronds, one tiny little sprout with a purple tip.

These are in the shady corner, behind the shed. I'm excited to see what they are.

I also saw some daffodils coming up next to the middle garden terrace, and up in the far left corner, the alliums have started coming up as well. I decided not to risk a climb over for a picture.

Muddy slick slope + 37 weeks pregnant = painful fall very likely.

Plus, the bulbs out front by the mailbox are finally peeking up, too.

Weather-wise, this week we have traded snow for rain and hail.

I'll take it.

More Snow

They say that spring has come early all across the U.S. this year...

except for the Pacific Northwest. [sigh]

I would have to concur.

This has been our view pretty much all week.

It snows all night, most of the morning, into the afternoon.

Late afternoon it stops snowing to start raining.

Or just long enough to give us a brief glimpse of sunshine.

Then it starts all over again the next day.

My two little munchkins are loving it.

It is encouraging that it keeps melting off (mostly) between snow storms.

Mostly seems to be sticking around on lawns.

When the snow does melt, it leaves huge puddles everywhere.

Who knows when it will be dry enough to plant anything!