The Garden and a Yard Tour

One of my deepest desires is to have a yard full of veggies and fruit and chickens and little barefoot kids twirling in the rays of Summer sun. *sigh* I also wouldn't mind sheep and some goats but that part probably wont happen!

This year I actually get to have apple trees, a garden and many smaller gardens that need tending to. No chickens... yet. ;) Of course we also have the children.

Today I planted my garden. My first solo garden and it was so much fun! I tend to over think everything and  so I had to read about 10 books, talk to about 15 people and read online and research the hell out of what kind of tomato is best for spaghetti sauce, which zucchini is best for bread and bbqing. What's the best pepper for salsa? What's the best lettuce for salads. Which kind of pumpkin will produce the best jack o'lantern!?


Since we're on the subject of the yard, I thought I'd give a little yard tour to my beautiful and potential-full yard. It's very over grown because I haven't done anything in it lately!

The yard is definitely one of my most favorite aspects of the house. It has two levels of wonderfulness and the lower part is my favorite so we'll start there! :)

So we come down the steps and this is what it looks like:

Isn't it gorgeous!?
This is the corner to the right (you can't see it in the above picture) but it has a blue berry bush, some strawberries, black berries, and horse tail taking over! Horsetail, so I've found is one of the most terrible of terrible weeds to get rid of. It was one of the first weeds to recover from Mt. St. Helen's erupting. It thrives off of low nutrients dirt. I just found out that raising the nutritional content of the bed will kill it! But that could take a season or two.
So for this bed I am taking out the strawberries and the blue berry bush and am transplanting them to a different area (to be mentioned later) I am also going to put in a TON of manure then put a trellis and train the blackberries to climb the trellis so we can pick them without having to be mauled.


This is going to be my herb garden. Right now it's full of ground cover and more horsetail. It will really take some time to clean up but it's a good project for me. I like to have something to do.


Here's the end of the herb bed and the apple tree standing in front of the strawberry bed.


Currently the "strawberry bed" has rhubarb and more horsetail. Needs more work, but I know we will reap the bennefits of a good strawberry garden. I don't know about the rhubarb... I'm not a big rhubarb fan. ;)


This is the apple tree and the branch where a swing will go. Maybe even a tire swing, but we'll see. The kids climb this tree endlessly and I do totally just adore it.


So that's the lower yard. Everything is so green and magical. There's an area that has cement in the corner and I am thinking of putting a little fire pit down there with chairs.

The beds in the upper yard are a little less inspiring but do need just as much work. I'm going to pick some of these rocks out and use them in the beds and in other areas and I'm going to throw down some wild flower seeds and maybe something that can climb on lattice... maybe some Blaze of Glory. If you can see in the right hand corner next to the porch step is a bit of peppermint peeking out.


This bed has irises and rhubarb. The rhubarb is dwarfed because it doesn't have enough room to grow so I'll be moving these ones too. I might move the irises or maybe move all the irises over here. My problem with irises is that while they are beautiful, the only last for SUCH a short time, like maybe a week and then you can't use the bed any longer than that. I'm not a huge flower person as is, I like really using space.


This is in the top right corner of the upper yard. It used to be where a swing set was and is edged in. I was thinking what a perfect size it would be for a good pumpkin patch, but it doesn't get enough sun as the area is over shadowed by a huge chestnut tree!


This is the blue berry bush in the middle. It needs to be re-staked. This bed also has more rhubarb and a few irises and is in desperate need of weeding! 


So that pretty much concludes the tour of the yard. All the interesting parts anyway. We also have a very large deck and the front fence completely covered in ivy. It is so beautiful and makes the yard feel so comfy.

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