Tag: flowers

Big Yard Flower Bed

In the beginning its barren and cold looking, almost like a grave.
It a small focal point of the yard between the house yard and the pond. Somethings have done well in it and others not so much. Every spring since five years ago I’ve added something new, blue and purple!
It is a four by seven-foot bed surrounded by stone from the farm. I have to keep stakes and chicken wire around to keep out the chickens and probably the deer & rabbits. This really doesn’t take away from the beauty of the bed when everything is blooming in it.
View from west end
View from east end, I had just planted the butterfly bush the week before. All of the plants are perennials. The Shasta daisy in the left corner just got divided and was bigger than a bushel basket last year. It’s the only white in the bed.
Butterfly bush
Perennial Foxglove
Delphinium in a brilliant blue
Money plant/silver dollar plant, seed from my granddaughter, Victoria.
Third year of the hydrangea from my husband

It will get a layer of mulch shortly and the bed will be done for the year. It gets full sun and I water it from the pond. Now I just wait for the blanket flower to perk up and show it’s beautiful blooms.

Southeast Yard Cleanup

Two hours later and a blister between my thumb and pointer but it’s done. The southeast yard looks pretty darned good, I think! All it needs is some warm days, lime and fertilizer.

No leaves, no limbs, no weed trash! It looks so better! The bare spot along the house wall is full of Hosta’s already budding out of the ground.

The big flat rock at the bottom step of the back door has been hauled off to be used somewhere else on the property.

This was a danger for anyone that came out the back door, especially when there was snow or ice.

I’ve got a nice flat bed in front of the chimney for a bunch of zinnias, and I made sure they wouldn’t be in the way of the chimney sweep (my husband). The bricks have been taken to our brick pile. They were placed at the bottom of the chimney clean out but they’re not needed there now.

No leaves, no limbs, no weeds trash! It looks so good!

In the corner of the chimney is a wooden nail keg holding hen & chicks given to me by a wonderful friend and they seem to love that spot where the sun hits them first thing in the morning.

The base of the nail keg is surrounded by Siberian Iris which I have to thin every year. It’s amazing how spread.

Last summer I started a hen & chicks garden in the old stump at the back fence of this part of the yard and it survived the winter which was mild to say the least.

Last summer I cleaned out the center and put some rich dirt in the stump. I pulled babies from my main hen & chick crock and they’re doing great. Another year and it will be full of Hens & Chicks with stringers falling over the stump and rocks. This spot gets morning and evening sun.

I have bird nesting spots all the around the building to the left which used to be a milk house when dairy cattle were on the farm. Now the building is used to store all of my gardening tools, small firewood for the kitchen woodstove, lawn ornaments stored for the winter and 20-30 bags of leaves in the fall/winter season for the chickens and the dog bedding. On the outside of the building are the nesting spots of Carolina wren, house finches and sparrows.

This old shoe that I found in a closet was put up three years ago and the finches love it. They raise at least twice a year. I noticed new feathers lining the outside of the nest while I was cleaning the yard. The birds couldn’t wait until I got out of their space.
This new bird house used to be a bird feeder that Uncle Holl had put up but the birds like it better for nesting.
I put up this old colander that I found last fall and hoping they use it too. The overhang of the roof is great for these houses. Protection from the sun and the cold seems to be a preference.

Next stop, rose garden and front yard which are both the worst of all. I don’t think I’ll be working on it today unless the wind lays and it warms up a bit, so I’ll concentrate on the inside of the house.

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