Pretending it's Spring!

Okay, no excuses about why I haven't blogged in 2 months.  ☺ 
The sun has been peeking out today and it reminded me of what it's like here when it's not pouring rain or foggy for weeks on end.  It felt like spring, and it was so nice to soak up a little sun.  It's also perfect weather for working in the garden.  You know it's been a productive time outside when every single thing you were wearing is covered in mud.
My original plan was to clean up the raised beds in our front yard, that never happened.  Instead I moved several shrubs around and have ended up with two that have no homes.  Hopefully one of my friends will want them.  The spaces where some of the shrubs were are now open for new plants later on.  I've decided that this is going to be a year of rearranging the garden.  I'm always moving something, but there are years that I don't do quite as much.  I have several plants that are just in the wrong spot, either too big, or just don't look right.  Can't wait to start digging!
While I was outside I was amazed at how much is already starting to grow.  Snowdrops are up and blooming, Hellebores are very close to blooming, lots of tulip and daffodils are starting to break through.  Bleeding Hearts have brand new growth showing, leaf buds on Flowering Currants are getting much bigger and best of all the Sarcococcas are blooming and making the yard smell delicious!

 A recent visitor to our pond a few days ago.  This Great Blue Heron sat in this tree for about 15 minutes before flying off.  Luckily he didn't get any fish, but he almost hit our window, his wing actually did but he seemed uninjured.

 The little shed garden has lots going on in it.  Can you spot Tina Fey looking for bugs?   She scratched up the garden nice and pretty!

 The shed garden from the other direction.

 I'm so proud of myself for starting to plant more around the pond that is evergreen.  It actually still looks pretty there.

 I can't say just how happy I am that the pine tree is gone.  I don't miss it for a second and every time I untangle the remaining pine needles from plants I think about how this is the last time I'll be doing that.

 The chickens were stretched out all over the deck soaking in the sun.

 More looking for something good to eat.

 Speaking of digging things up, I dug out a Camellia that had been where the Pieris is now.  It had been there for years, only bloomed on the bottom, was yellow and grew horizontally for some reason.  I had the Pieris in a container that it was too big for.  I think it will be perfect here.

 In the front bed I moved out a rose (into the backyard) and a Deutzia that never did anything.  I had a large fuchsia that was too close to the edge of this bed so I moved it to where the others plants had been.  Wish the Hydrangeas looked better than they do in the winter.

 I moved a Spirea that was much too big for this spot, and moved a Weigela (a small variety that I can't remember the name of) into it's place.

 It looks so fresh there now.  While I was digging I dug up several cherry tree sprouts that had gotten pretty big.

This area just needed a change.  I dug up another Spirea that was just getting too big.  There are several plants here that I want to move.

There was a theme to my digging today. They were all shrubs that had gotten too big.  I've learned the lesson over the years that those tags on those tiny little plants at the nursery are correct.  That one gallon plant will get to be 6 feet high and wide, or whatever it says.  

We're supposed to have another nice day tomorrow, and this time I will get those front raised beds cleaned out, hopefully...

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Early spring in the front yard.

The sun was out and birds were singing early this morning.  I love this time of year when I wake to the birds.  There is a pair of ducks that continue to fly across the school yard over the fence every morning, sometimes they have an extra guy with them.  He seems like kind of a third wheel because they appear to try and lose him as they swerve around the sky.  I've seen pairs of birds near almost every birdhouse in our yard.  Plum and cherry trees are blooming and you can really smell them when the breeze is blowing.
It's still a bit cool outside but I wanted to get some pictures of how some of the front garden is looking right now.  There are so many different colors of green (and red and orange) on the new leaves.  It won't be too long before many of these plants are blooming.

 You can see a picture of this garden on the sidebar to see how it will look later in the summer.  I'm always amazed at how much it changes over the year.

 We put this birdhouse up last summer and angled it so we could see it from inside in hopes that birds would use it.  Well there is already a pair of Chickadees making a nest in it.  They don't seem to mind the activity of kids and the dog around them.

 From the front you can see all the moss that has grown on the edgers this winter.

 The flowering cherry tree is blooming and the bumblebees are loving it.

 Spirea has already leafed out.  There's some empty space to fill in this bed this year, not sure what will go in it yet though, but I do love empty garden space!

 The water garden was cleaned out this weekend.  I trimmed all the plants, dumped the water and will let the rain fill it back up.

 Pink Hyacinths that were planted last fall are blooming.  The slugs have been terrible about eating them.

 I planted this container last year and am so happy with how it's doing.  The Pieris is blooming and the Clematis on the obelisk is quickly climbing up.

The entry bed is full of color, it's difficult to tell in the lighting here though.  Hellebores, Crocuses, Tete-a-tete daffodils and Heucheras really brighten it up.  The moss has gone crazy here this winter.

It looks and feels like we are returning to the cooler and wetter weather that we had most of the month.  I'm hoping that the daytime temperatures will stay above 50, but I see some days of upper 40's predicted.  This time of year I guess you just have to enjoy any dry and sunny day that we have because you never know how long it will be until the next one.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Best September ever?

September has been an extremely busy month for us.  We had back to school for both girls, ballet for the Littlest Gardener, junior high cross country started for Sweet Pea, then Sweet Pea decided she also wanted to play soccer again, the Littlest Gardener's birthday, a visit from the in-laws, our anniversary and planning for Sweet Pea's upcoming 13th birthday on October 2nd.  I was beginning to feel some withdrawl from the garden.  We had a lot of wind and rain the last few days which made the garden a huge mess.  Looking at the front yard every time I went in and out of the house and not being able to do much in it was making me anxious to get my hands in the dirt.
Today I got to spend 2 1/2 hours cleaning, raking, planting, digging, sweeping and raking and was it ever great.  I was able to clean out the pond, the back deck and do a bit of cleaning in the front yard.  The sun was out with a light breeze, perfect for gardening. 
This is the first autumn we've gotten to enjoy our new front yard.  It has been so fun watching it change throughout the seasons.  I think even with the crazy busyness of life this month that I'm still enjoying the garden in the front more than I ever have since we moved in 12 1/2 years ago.

I've been starting to add some fall color to the planters.

 I normally wait to pull out the fall decorations until after Sweet Pea's birthday at the beginning of October, but I was too excited to see how it would look.

Dahlias always make me happy this time of year.  They just bloom and bloom.

I finally got the Littlest Gardener to hold still long enough to take her picture by our tallest Sunflower 'Mammoth'.  She was having fun riding her bike as fast as she could in circles in the driveway.

Kale 'Red Russian' growing quickly in the raised bed.

Black-eyed Susans are another September favorite.  The Dragonfly seems to like them too.

I was surprised to find all these flowers on 'Julia Child'.

Aster 'Professor Kippenburg'

Salvia 'Black and Blue' just came up a few weeks ago and is now blooming.  I was quite surprised to see it.

Re-do of a wine barrel planter on the driveway.  There is also a Barberry behind the Carex 'Prairie Fire'.

 For some reason I'm drawn to this angle and keep taking pictures of it.  I'm always surprised by how much is still blooming in September.  This year with all the new garden space there's more than ever.

Other than a few windy and rainy days in the last week, we've had absolutely gorgeous weather.  Hopefully it will hold for awhile longer so that I'll be able to do more work out in the yard soon.

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Last days of summer.

Over the weekend we had our first fall "system" move through.  This brought much cooler weather, lots of rain and wind.  The rain was appreciated by the garden, but the first few windy days are not appreciated by me.  They bring down all the dead pine needles from the Ponderosa Pine.  It takes many, many days to get them cleaned.  Just when they are mostly swept and raked up, another wind comes through.  Our roof looks as though we have a thatched roof.  Pine needles are my very least favorite thing about the end of summer.  But, once they are sort of cleaned (until the yard waste bin is packed full of them) and untangled from everything, the garden looks good again.

 Sunflowers tall and short are blooming in the front garden.

 Yes, that's a RED tomato!  I started these 'Tigerella' tomatoes last year and none turned red.  I'm so glad that at least one is turning this year.  In a few days my in-laws will be visiting from California, hopefully we'll be eating tomatoes from the garden while they are here.

 We spent a long time yesterday cleaning out the front raised reds, pulling out lettuce and greens that were done and planting more seedlings.  We've got lots of chard, kale, beets and carrots starting.  I sowed lettuce and radishes yesterday.  I still consider this an experimental year, so we'll see how well things do started now.  I do know for sure we need to organize our plantings much better next year, also that we'll plant way fewer tomatoes since they took up a lot of space and haven't produced much.

Oh, and I found what the strange Sunflower is called.  It's 'Sunspot' and supposed to get 18" - 24" tall according to the packet.

 This has got to be the prettiest lettuce I've ever grown.  'Mottistone' has been doing great, no signs of bolting, and I found that the fairies like it too.

 The other raised bed seems to have more warm season veggies growing.  Pattypan, Buternut and Zucchini are all still growing.

 I showed the start of the changes of the driveway bed in a previous post.  I really like how it's turning out.

 From a different angle you can see the new Nandina 'Gulf Stream' on the left and Osmanthus 'Goshiki' on the right.  These two are both evergreen.

 Love the seed heads on this Clematis.

 The shed garden still looks pretty good for this late in the summer.  I've been noticing how much red/burgundy colored foliage  I've been adding in both the front and backyard.

 Fuchsia magellanica is still doing great by the pond.

 One plant I'm very happy with this year is the Bugbane or Actaea.  I've had it in several places and it seems it finally likes it here.  It's close to 5 feet tall and is covered in the best smelling flowers.  The honeybees were all over it.

We are looking forward to my husband's parents coming for a visit.  It looks as if summer is returning for this week and we should be able to enjoy lots of time outside.  Not too long ago I replanted both Dill and Basil for my father-in-law to use when he hopefully makes us Spanakopita.  In March they were here and saw the very beginnings of the garden, and he also helped my husband build the front arbor.  I'm excited for them to see how it all looks now.

 All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.

Gardening with my family - the payoff.

Earlier this year my husband and I decided to finally put our dream of raised beds and a picket fence for our front yard.  When he planned to take the same week off in February that our kids had off from school we figured it would be another mild week of our strange winter weather.  Up until then we'd had one short spell of unusually cold weather in November, followed by above normal temps. 

Then the week of planned garden renovation came and of course it snowed and was below freezing, turning what we knew would be a physically difficult job into an even more difficult job once the ground froze, the gravel pile froze and it was just too cold some days to do work.  But we knew that in the summer we'd be really glad that the hard part was done and we could then enjoy the fun part.

And we were right.  It was worth all that hard work just 6 months ago!  Now the payoff isn't only picking fresh vegetables, but the other things our family has gotten out of it. 

For example my hope that my husband would take on some of the vegetable garden chores so he could find some relaxation in standing and watering or pulling a few weeds (believe me, it can be relaxing).  I've seen him many times checking the garden, work bag still on his shoulder, before he's come in from his very long work day.  Last evening I looked up to see him grabbing a pair of garden scissors  from the front potting bench.  When I went out to see what he was up to, he told me he needed to cut the flowers of of the greens and lettuce so they didn't go to seed.  He said, "What's it called?  Bolting?"  Never did I think he would be that interested.  He's also been having a great time going out and picking chard and other greens to cook with.

Another great thing my oldest daughter said to me the other night was how it was fun to have a "job" that was going out and picking the green beans, patty pan squash and blueberries.  Her and her little sister laughed and were so excited as they found more and more to pick.  Much more fun that taking out the trash or cleaning your room I guess.

The garden is far from perfect, not quite everything went as planned.  I had hoped for more edible flowers, but not everything flourished as I hoped.  But I did get some pretty Dahlias, and they are as pretty as I thought they would look blooming among the greens.

We're still waiting for the tomatoes to turn red.  The Littlest Gardener occasionally will find a red cherry tomato and will feed it to me as I garden.  I've never been fed while weeding before!

I'm sure some would say the beds are overcrowded, but how could I say no to Sweet Pea when she went to the trouble of digging up the plants and bringing them home from school.  She started them in science class for a class garden.  She was very proud of the squash and tomato plants and they are all doing well.

Never would I have expected back when we started the garden project back in February, that Sweet Pea would use her Christmas Amazon.com gift card to buy 'Pumpkin Peppers' seeds.  She did that all on her own and was very excited to show me the seeds when they arrived.  Now the interesting ornamental peppers are starting to turn orange.

Something else interesting I've found, we'd never seen evidence of the garden fairies in the front yard before.  Now I've started finding signs of them this summer.  Guess they like the changes too.

Since we've finished our garden renovation we've also ended up with a whole other place to spend with each other and family and friends.  We've had many meals in our new eating space, as well as somewhere to just sit and talk.

So gardening in the front yard has had a better payoff than more gardening space for flowers and food.  It's taught us about new things, some we didn't even know we were interested in, a place for imagination and play and fun.  I hope you can find some of the same joys gardening with your family.
All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.