Oh how the garden grows

That’s right…I’ve started a blog.  It’s only taken a few years but I’ve decided to go for it, mainly because I’m done with Facebook but still wanted to share pictures and whats going on in our lives with friends and family.   So today’s topic is about our yard….

It has taken up a lot of our time this summer, and truly, ever since we bought the place.  When we bought the house, the lady had decided to stop doing any yard work and so the grass was pretty dead, there were a ton of weeds, and it looked like someone went crazy with the odd/sporadic flowers everywhere.  The way our neighbors tell it though, this was an improvement over when our yard used to be an overgrown forest of poplar trees and rubber trees/plants…that’s right, planted rubber trees.  I can only imagine because those former owners still live in our neighborhood and their yard is extremely scary.  I don’t like walking by it at night (and neither do the animals) because I feel like it would be the perfect hiding place for a crazed killer to hit me over the head with a shovel. 

So here are a few pictures to enjoy:

A shot of the front yard 

Chase looking pretty by the rhododendrons.  This bed used to have just 2 plants, but we collected the other four rhododendrons from the yard and put them in the bed.  We think it looks a lot better. 

The lupines. And the tiny orange were our ranunculus, which we were very excited about, but have since died.  We got the mulch from our wonderful neighbors who bought too much and gave us some.  

The rose bed with a closeup of the lavender spaced between the roses.  This is one bed we haven't done much to, as we really liked it.  It still needs some cleaning up, and thinning of the lavender (which I adore, so I'm putting that off), but it's gorgeous come mid-summer when all the roses are blooming. 

And then there is our veggie bed.  This is a project we really enjoyed this summer.  I designed and Justin built most of the bed, which is 12 ft long and 2.5 feet high.  We used scraps from our fence that we had lying around in the garage for most of it.  As you can see, the tomatos are really starting to take off, as are some of our herbs.  We have tomatoes (big and small), several types of peppers (hot, bell and sweet), chard, lettuce, and herbs (cilantro, oregano, rosemary, basil and ginger mint).   Please ignore our ugly backyard grass....the dogs make it difficult.  And our ugly garage...

Our tomatillo plant has really started taking off as well this past week.  We ran out of room in the big bed, so it has it's own little pot.  We've been lucky with all the rain we've been having this spring/summer.  Which is good, considering how mild of a winter we had, but poor Idaho is flooding. 

Here are our strawberries.  They were already there when we bought the house, and have since survived two summers, with us not really caring for them.  This year, we are going to at least try to water them.  The strawberries are small and oddly shaped, but we tried one today and it was very sweet and very good. 

Now there's still a lot of work to do, and lots more yard specific projects.  Below, is our raised garden bed, which we hope to turn into a water feature/pond.  We already have the layout in our mind, and it'll just take money and effort to turn it into our dream Pacific Northwest water garden complete with mini pine trees and cat-tails.  There is also the fence, where I spent 5 hours one Sunday chopping back all of the Virginia Creeper so my honeysuckle could breathe.  It's been a month and it's back, overwhelming the honeysuckle.  We can't get to the roots because it's between our fence and our neighbors and we can't get back there.  Does anyone know of a way to kill it?  

The future water garden 

My poor honeysuckle!!!!! 

And finally, gratuitous shots of the puppies and Chase for your viewing pleasure.