Would you like to see our garden?

One of the things I've learned from living in a place where we truly experience four true seasons is that by the end of winter, I'm desperate for color.  After the gray days of winter, I long for bright colors.  As soon as we have our last frost, I'm planting annuals and prepping for my perennials to come up.  Then, we wait...

By July, we have those bright colors we've been waiting for...

My day lily fence...

We have daylilies acting as a little fence between our yard and the neighbor's yard.

Self-seeded petunias...

We have a profusion of petunias...interestingly I planted only a few...these babies self-seeded from last year.

Aren't these beautiful?

We have gorgeous Asiatic lilies.



We have seven of these...

Look at our hanging planters...aren't they pretty?

Butterfly approved...the ultimate garden seal.

One of our two apple trees.  We didn't know they were apple trees until our third year here.  Improved irrigation did the trick.

And the view off our deck is still fabulous.  We keep hearing that they're going to build something horrible like retail there, but for now, we're oh so grateful that they haven't.

The view off our deck...geraniums are a nice pop of color, aren't they?
We get a lot of birds at the bird feeders, too.  The cats love that!

We have lots more going on, but these pictures give you a good idea of how busy our yard is keeping us.  Definitely some serious productivity going on here!

Fertilizer Friday

Fertilizer Friday?! Again? I wasn't ready!



Well, we don't have a lot going on in our garden these days. We've got a ton of leaves to take care of this weekend and we're hoping to get the compost pile turned before the snow comes, but for now, the outside is done. Still, the barren landscape gives me a minute to show you two of the things I love in my backyard.


First, this post used to hold our pool cover (for an above ground pool) when we would swing the reel off the pool so the kids could swim. It was concreted in for stability and Superman didn't want to dig it up after we got rid of the pool. What to do with a pole in the middle of the yard?


Ah! A place for the birdhouses my kids have made for me, painted for me, or I've made with them. The house on the left was painted by Valiant when he was little-little (that means I don't know how old he was, but I'm thinking kindergarten)...you can't see it, but it has a bluebird and a sun and lots of other sunshine-y details. I love it. The house on the top? That was made by Buttercup as a Christmas gift. She used scrap wood Superman had in the garage and refused to let her dad help with much of anything. I think I painted the other two, but I can't be certain. I love looking out and seeing the treasures my children have created. It makes my heart happy.


This other view is looking towards our koi pond and Buttercup's "clubhouse" (which doubles as the "area under the deck that was going to waste until she claimed it"). The window you see looking out towards the pond is the one where you'd see me at the computer, if you were peeking over my fence and had good eyesight! The "No-Fishing" sign just cracks me up because our fish have such weird names: Bait, Filet, Bobo, and Guppy 2.0 (Guppy died). The little house behind the sign? That actual covers the pump for the pond and made, again, of scrap lumber from a neighbor's fence. The rocks around the pond? Oh, they came for free when we bought the house...they were in the dirt everywhere...weren't we fortunate?


As you can see Buttercup has begged, borrowed, and stolen construction supplies, unused landscaping materials and even the rug from her room to make her area nice (I thought we were saving the rug for another decor iteration of her room, but she says the dogs "need" it!). The dogs sure like appreciate her efforts.

P.S. Did you know, as long as we keep a hole in the ice for oxygen, the koi will survive the winter just fine? They just go dormant, almost hibernating, until the ground warms up again. Cool, isn't it?