Garden Steps

Last year about this time we started working on the wooded path from the English Garden down to the new yard.  Mama put in a few steps at the bottom next to the gate.  Well, we’ve finally returned to that project a year later and put in the rest of the steps!

I forgot to take progress pics, but here are the completed steps leading to the garden!

After Mama and I finished laying the steps, we added a row of liriope down one side.  We still have to finish the border, and we also want to add more plants along the path later on. 

It’s certainly a more pleasant and picturesque walk down through the woods now with the addition of our steps! :)

Since we are already down here, let’s have a look around the English Garden, shall we?

Everything is looking nice!  I’ll be back soon with updates from the garden!

Happy Summer!

When life gives you 12 yards of topsoil…

Back in March I was set on mulching the backyard so I called around and ordered some mulch to have it delivered.  What luxury!  Usually I call my mother and brother and they work me into their schedules and we get mulch in several deliveries over the course of the month or whatever.  But they were busy so I took matters into my own hands!

Anyway fast forward to mulch delivery.  Giant dump truck arrives, backs carefully down my driveway and dumps a huge pile of something.  Mulch, eh, not so much.  Turns out it was topsoil and it was mistakenly delivered to my house instead of my mulch!  So, delivery guy calls the company and company guy calls me and says, So, do you have any use for 12 yards of topsoil?  Me: Do I ever!  Yes!  I’ll take it!  So the guy offers it to me free!  Woot!

Michael and I have a back and forth battle going with our grass.  Especially the back yard.  Which we reseeded three years ago in the fall.  Remember the battle in which I used Round Up on the backyard and then we tilled and reseeded it?  Well, clearly our ministrations don’t mean much to the grass.  It died anyway.  Moss creeps back in and soon our yard is looking as pathetic as before!  See below:

So we had been discussing what to do about our pathetic yard.  Maybe we should get a load of topsoil, maybe our soil was just too compacted and full of clay to make the yard nice?  Then this guy delivers me 12 yards of free topsoil.  Well, okay then! :)

So when life gives you 12 yards of topsoil, you call your brother John, who just happens to have recently bought a new tractor.  John is a gem, so he came the following weekend and spread all the topsoil on the yard for me!  Yay!  Thanks John!

Unfortunately this happened in the front yard since he had to drive around to the back.  So we reseeded it, too. :)

And the side yard, as well.

Mama helped me rake and smooth it and then I put out fertilizer and seed.  We bought “Shady Nook” grass seed so hopefully it will be successful back here.

Fast forward a few weeks. The grass is beautiful!

There’s even grass growing the side yard! :) Whoo!

While we were at it, I removed the azaleas on the left and put grass in that swath where the flower bed used to be.  It’s more continuous now.

Now if we can keep it watered and keep Miss Riley out of it, it might stand a chance of surviving.  At least for another couple of years.  :)

How Does your Garden Grow?

Summer is almost here, which means gardening season is in full swing.  We planted ours a few weeks ago and everything is growing crazy down there!  Here’s a look:

We decided to run the rows the short way of the garden this time.  On the right side we have onions and corn.

Next is half runner green beans on my new bean wires.

In the middle is bell peppers, jalapenos, and tomatoes.

Then I planted tiny ornamental pumpkins on my other set of wires.  Can’t wait to see if they climb!

And on the end are more greens beans.  These are bush beans: Blue Lake 47, and Triomphe de Farcy which is a french style green bean.  I’m really looking forward to those!

The left side of the garden is still empty but we’re planning to put in a late crop of corn in the leftover space.

The rest of the yard down here is looking pretty good, too.  I have several things blooming right now. The purple speedwells all survived the year and are blooming again.

The yarrow that was tiny last year is beautiful and plentiful this year!

I also planted wildflower seed in the space behind our flower bed and everything is up.  Some things have already started blooming too! :)

We have a few petunias and some marigolds along the creekbank.  The coneflowers are about to bloom, too!

My purple butterfly bush is blooming!

Yellow primrose that was transplanted from a friend.  Thanks Lisa!

My annual phlox are pretty too!

The rock bed is sporting petunias and verbena.

The right bed is bordered by a “forest of pokeroot” which my mother massacred over the weekend.  I’ll get some updated pics of that for you.  It’s way more open now on that side.  I saw three deer this morning over there.  They must be in the neighborhood checking on my garden progress to see if the tomatoes are ready yet. ;)

Some of the lilies are blooming I noticed today, and the beans have started twining up the wires! Yay!  Go garden! 

The front yard is looking good, too.  The impatiens are in full swing.

Oak leaf hydrangeas. :)

Everything is so pretty and we’ve been getting lots of rain so I haven’t had to water the annuals too often.  But looks like it’s going to be a dry, hot week this week, so I guess I’ll be getting my chance!  :)  Happy Summer!