Morning Garden Walk

Here are a few pictures from my early morning walk around the garden.

The vegetable patch

Zinnias doing their best to brighten my day

A view of my left-hand front garden

The pond

Why add this little drab photo? Well, this is the back of the shed that no one really sees, but I'm using it as a little utility area and place to park the green waste garbage can. I'm just happy with how it turned out.

Lose a Trampoline, Gain a Shed!

Mark bought himself a new car, a Mazda 6. The one you see pictured here looks exactly like the one he bought. He's pretty proud of it. He loves to research buys, so I think he ended up getting just the car he wants. The main criteria for the new car was sporty looks (yes, this is true), good gas mileage, and room for three to sit comfortably in the back. Everyone in the family gave this the thumbs up. We've already all driven in it as a family, and there was a lot less fighting with the extra three inches between each person. It's a modern miracle!
Of course, in order to park the car in our garage, we had to get a shed. So, I've spent a while (with help from everyone) preparing the site of our old trampoline for a new shed. This did involve laying pavers as well--but I'm an old pro after last year's mammoth paver laying project. Here is the new shed below. These are not the right doors (they are only 5' 10" tall!), but they will be bringing out the correct doors on Tuesday.

As you can see, there was just enough room to squeeze it in the spot--there is only 6 inches between the southwest corner and the back of the fence (Oh, the joys of an odd-shaped lot)! We choose this funky saltbox style so Mark would have a lot of headroom--the other choices either don't have as high a roof or are too tall. We also picked a very light color to keep the heat down--we didn't even try to match our house except for the gray colors.

Some of the new paving I (and Mike) have put it. This part is all finished except for putting gravel in the sprinkler area that I couldn't cover over.

This is along the side -- still a little work to do here. And the whole thing needs sand swept in. I put this fifty inch walkway here so that the shed wouldn't shade my garden too much (the shed is on the South side).

Vegetables at Last!

I finally got my garden going after a whole year of looking bleagh. Here are a few shots:

Tomatoes - Cherry and Slicing

The tomato marker I repainted - looks good!

Green Beans - Yum

Update on the Paving Project

Well, I'm very close to being done with this little project. It is looking pretty good, if you ask me. I get up every morning at about 6:30 and work on it after I run until it gets too hot.

Getting closer to the finish line!

All of these corners make for some tricky paver laying

The old stepping stones moved down by the trampoline

Part of this project involves moving three large compost bins

The last part to go

Sand, sand, and more sand

Projects

Well, the big project this year is paving the garden paths:

Yes, it really has looked like this for a year.

As you can see, this is a pretty messy and ugly project while it is going on. We actually dug up all of this last year to lay in the sprinkler lines, and it was a muddy, weedy mess all summer.

Back to Business in the Garden

Well, the last month was crazy, being the end of school, but now I am ready for a full summer of relaxation and enjoyment in the garden. Here are some random garden thoughts.


Overwintered Pots

I threw all my pots into the garage and forgot about them last fall. Some of my pots were situated by our garage's south facing windows. Amazingly enough, when I pulled the pots out in the spring, many of my annuals had overwintered and were already in full growth (with some already in full bloom)! I have wave petunias, small petunias, calla lilies, dahlias, geraniums, spikes, and even gerbera daisies still alive. So. . .I cheated and just left a lot of things potted up from last year. I threw in some osmocote, so hopefully they will still have enough nutrients to bloom.


I decided that I have been planting too many pots, so I planted eight less pots this year. I needed something to do with my leftover pots, so I decided to create a tower effect out by my maple tree as a kind of funky yard art. This is how it turned out:


It's a Beautiful Time in the Garden


Quite frankly, the yard is simply gorgeous right now. I have tons of iris blooming, along with lilacs, so there is a wonderful fragrance outside. Everything is green and beautiful, with none of the brown, tired look that things sometimes begin to get late in the summer. I love this time of year!

The Vegetable Garden


Yesterday I finished planting my garden. I put in zucchini, yellow summer squash, asparagus, cosmos (self seeded everywhere!), cilantro, bell peppers, hot peppers, onion sets, parsley (again self seeded), green beans, Brandywine, Early Girl, Sweet Million, and Roma tomatoes, two kinds of pumpkins, cucumbers, and Zinnias. I already have rosemary, marjoram, oregano, sage, and chives growing out there. I was a little sad that I was too lazy to get any lettuce planted, but you can only do so much. My little garden looks pretty good; I am excited for the bounty in the fall.


Spring Flush Time!

I have buds everywhere getting ready to burst forth. I should have a spectacular spring flush any day now!