Sandbox for the toddler

When we moved into the house, a sad little rotten sandbox sat in the backyard. At first, I thought I would just replace the sand and add a cover, but on closer inspection, the whole thing had to go.  I searched online for a simple sandbox project and found this one at This Old House.com
http://www.thisoldhouse.com
The project looked simple enough so I decided to take it on.  I went to Home Depot and bought 6 cedar 4x4s which I had them cut in half at the store.  I couldn't find the screws specified in the instructions, so I got 6" lag bolts instead which I countersunk so that the bolt heads wouldn't poke out.  Otherwise, I followed the instructions exactly.  I couldn't be happier with the results, and June LOVES it!

I have a temporary tarp cover over the box now to keep animals from using it as a litter box.  I think I'll make a simple cover out of marine grade plywood.  Eventually....

If these deer weren't so cute....

Yesterday, I awoke to discover that deer had chomped off the tops of all four of my tomato plants!  It looks like they were just going for the new leaves.  Luckily, they didn't touch the perfectly ripe green pepper or budding green tomatoes.  These are the culprits: Mama and her two little babies.  They are lucky they're cute.  I decided another spray with "Liquid Fence" was the way to go.  It stunk for a few hours, but hopefully it will keep them away.  Sorry, deer, no more tomatoes for you!  But there is some tasty bamboo in the back yard!

Daylilies are blooming

Finally, our first daylily has bloomed!  We have an entire bed (B5) of daylilies (or rather, they are our neighbors', but our large family room window overlooks them).  It looks like the first to pop  are double orange daylilies.  Very pretty.The rest of the neighborhood's daylilies have come and gone. I guess our bed is shaded enough to delay the bloom,  I was getting worried that they wouldn't bloom at all.

Bamboo Be Gone!

Today I sprayed roundup on the invasive bamboo creeping in from our neighbor's yard.  Ugh, so annoying!  Why do people plant this stuff and let it run rampant!  I knew what I was getting into when we moved in.  I saw the stumps, but this stuff is crazy.  I pulled up a net of roots in some of the beds, but against the fences I'm having trouble controlling the stuff.  We'll see what the Roundup does.

Rose of Sharon Blooming!

Finally, confirmation that the shrubs/trees on the side of our house are Rose of Sharon.  They are just starting to bloom today.  We have some in B6 and B4 beds at the front door and at the side of our garage.  I'm not sure why I feel this way, but I think of Rose of Sharon as kind of....low class.  I wish I felt differently because we have a lot of them, and the flowers are quite stunning.

Bed B9 Street side

mid June before new plantings

This bed is boring.  Two hydrangeas, one yew, and some purple low-producing irises. I added some striped liriope, white delphinia, and some cast-off dwarf nandina cuttings from a neighbor.  A couple colorful annuals lighten up the driveway edge (not shown in this picture).  As one of the first thing our guests will see, this bed needs work!

Bed B7 Vegetable Garden!

Mid June

A green pepper grows in mid June

This Bed excites me the most.  We are blessed with a small house on a .42 acre lot (in a great neighborhood too!).  Most of the lot lies between the house's front door and the street.  With a sunny location and nothing but some weedy lawn, I thought this would be the perfect place for a small veggie and herb garden.  The bed is only 4 foot wide by about 10 feet long. I pulled out the first couple inches of weed and dirt and added a few bags of miracle grow garden soil. I put in 4 tomato plants, a green bell pepper, carnival carrots, yellow straightneck squash, basil, rosemary, dill, oregano, parsley.  Some marigolds brighten up the edges, and I plan to stick in some sunflower seeds to please my toddler daughter. Unfortunately, when I tried to expand the bed to the east, I found that there was only about 3 inches of soil over old crumbling asphalt!  Who would do that??  Anyway, I can only go west now, but that's alright.  I'm starting small, next year we'll try some lettuce, broccoli, hot peppers.  I'm excited!

Bed B6 Front Door Bed

Mid June: I added some coreposis and some annuals to brighten up the bed

Mid May: Some woodland hyacinths in bloom, not much else...

Late April

This bed to the left of the driveway and in front of our front door will be gone when we reconfigure the driveway into a courtyard concept.  I'm not going to expend too much money or energy on it, so I put in some annuals to fill it in a bit with color.  The previous owners put these Rose of Sharon in EVERYWHERE! I'm not sure I'm a fan yet.

B5 Backyard Bed

November 2010 - when we saw the house for the first time

late April: Post-bamboo removal.

late April

Early June.  I reduced the size of the bed, and expanded the lawn by putting in sod.

Mid June: Sod has taken, bamboo temporarily under control, I added some astilbe for a little color.

Bed B5.  I consider this the primary backyard bed.  Our main living area, the family room, has a direct view of this area, so it was one of the first areas I attacked.  As spring sprung, we found a net of bamboo runners under this bed. After many many hours of pulling out bamboo runners, we ended up with one fern, a healthy crop of daylilies, a hydrangea tree (Peegee?) , and a couple heavily pruned butterfly bushes (color yet unknown).

Bed B4 Beside the Garage

Late April: Let's see what comes out....

Early June.  Woodland Hyacinths have faded.  Ferns are out.

Mid June: I removed the wilted bulb foliage.  Hostas are in.  Those Rose of Sharon need a little leaf management.

This long narrow bed on the south side of our garage is actually quite shaded by our neighbors' carriage house about 10 feet away.  It started out pretty bare, but I added some hostas.  If the deer don't mess with anything, this should be a pretty decent (if boring) little stretch.

Bed B3 family room window

Mid June: Family room bed most recently.  Mulched and weeded.  

late April: I was happy to see some flowers after a long winter.

I thought the tall plant there in the center was going to be a cool perennial flower, but it got spindly and the tiny blue flowers were very disappointing.  Needless to say, I yanked it.

How do I hide this thing!?!?

Post-weeding, post bulbs, not much left.....

These hostas are in full sun!  What were the previous owners thinking??

We have these huge windows at the family room with a bed in front.  It turns out that after the daffodils and tulips faded there wasn't much left except for a pretty pink peony, a couple small lavender plants, a couple misplaced hostas (FULL SUN!), a butterfly bush, and a small hydrangea.  I am making this into my cutting garden and have added 3 coneflowers, and 3 gallardias.  Now I need to move out those hostas since they are already fried and figure something out to cover that green sewage pump thing.  I also plan to add a rainbarrel in the corner by the butterfly bush.

Bed B2 Frying Ferns

Late April

Early June: Needs some weeding, but otherwise these ferns look healthy.  Too bad a week later they were brown from too much sun!

The previous owner planted ferns on the south side of our screened porch - IN FULL SUN.  Now, in mid-June they are fried!  I need to move these asap.  Oh well, I guess I need to make another trip to the nursery for some replacements! And where to move the ferns...hmmmm....perhaps by the sandbox....?

Bed B1 FERNS!

I added some ferns to the east side of our screen porch.  Unfortunately, the ground is super clayey - not conducive to fantastic ferns.  I'll need to add some peat and a good layer of mulch.  Thanks to Julie for digging these out of her beds.

Street Bed North B8- Before and Middle

Let's start at the street with Flower Bed "B8".  This is the bed with our address sign.  We have a spirea shrub, a crape myrtle, some irises, bearded irises, and a fountain grass clump.  Weed wise we have tons of star of bethlehem which came out in the spring, but shrivelled up in May.  I don't have a big plan here, but I need something low maintenance and drought tolerant since I can't reach the hose out there.

Starting in the middle

I've been looking for a online garden journal, but they all seemed so restrictive.  I wasn't into fill in the blank, so we'll see how this goes.  I know that, for a journal that will be considering my garden, mid-June is an odd in-the-middle time, but again, we'll see how it goes.