More Yard Work!

We've been busy bees out in the yard, and the work keeps going on as long as the weather's nice like it has been.

After a weekend of working outside, I figured it was picture time. It's hard to capture in photos, but it's really quite pretty! We need a couple more garbage cans full of mulch to finish the mulching. Maybe tonight or tomorrow, if I can convince Brent :) He's currently digging a trench for another brick path, so I'm thinking he won't want to do mulch tonight.

Here we have a current status picture of the south side of the yard...

and another of the north side.

Now for some closeups. Roughly following from the bottom of the steps around the yard in a clockwise direction.
My Rhubarb has really taken off! It keeps getting new stalks and leaves and is looking extremely healthy!

These 2 elephant ears have come up nicely and put out some lovely leaves. There are 3 more that are just barely up now, so they'll be coming out with leaves soon too.

I just planted a bunch more ajuga after seeing how well these plants have taken on the task of filling in the bare ground. I read they're in the mint family so it makes sense that they'd spread well.

Speaking of Mint, here's a nice view of mine--all contained in a pot though. Mmm, mojito anyone?

The corn is looking a bit windblown. Who knows if it will manage to make ears of corn this year or not. We shall see!

The potato plants are thriving. The critters seem to be leaving them alone now, after a few early nibbles on a couple plants.

My lettuce looks awesome. I just thinned it, but it still looks a little crowded. They seem to spread out to take up as much space as possible.

Brent put in a new path from my car to the sidewalk a while ago, so I filled in around it with some pretty annuals. Mostly yellow snapdragons.

and another view

The petunias under the birdbath are loving their location since the birds are constantly splashing water out over them.

One of my Canna lilies is looking quite handsome. Seveal others are a few inches tall right now and should start sending out their large leaves soon.

I don't remember what this plant is, but I really love its purple leaves. They make me think of dragon scales with their almost iridescence.

I also took pictures of my berries (strawberry, raspberry, and blackberry), but they were blurry. There's 1 strawberry that is very nearly ripe and nothing has eaten it yet. I hid it under some leaves a little bit, so maybe it will make it til tomorrow when it should be ripe.

Some gardening

This spring I planted 55 gladiolus bulbs in a corner of the front yard. I like to plant them fairly close together so they have a better chance of not falling over when they're fully grown. You can see a few of them are up. I think I counted 15 or so. I put the 2 big pots around the patch so people would quit stepping in it. Someone even stepped in them when it was obvious there were things sprouting! The nerve.


In the back yard next to the porch, we have a bed of irises and lilies. I never saw the irises last year, but this year they're gorgeous. All white and with tons of blooms!


Here's the north half of the yard. In the far left corner, I plan to do some elephant ears and some shade plants under them once they're established. You can barely make out the ground cover plants near the garden boxes. Speaking of garden boxes, lettuce and carrots have begun to make an appearance! I'm hoping to see potatos any day now. I also got some small watermelon plants at the nursery and added them in one of the boxes. We'll see how they do. Under the big tree in the back, I'm planting a bunch of impatiens. It's too shadowy to see them right now. I'll try to get a better photo this evening.


I've spent most of my time on this part of the yard. It houses all the fruit stuff: blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes, and a pot of strawberry plants. I've filled in with a bunch of other plants too. I really like these leaf-only annuals with red, white, and pink leaves. They're quite colorful. I also put my hens and chicks in this area. I do so love them (and have since I was a kid).