Another Yard and Garden Update

Spring has finally arrived. We've had some warm days and cool nights and everything had just about exploded. The Mad River Valley is a week or so behind the Champlain Valley, where my mom lives, and every time I was over there over the past month so so, I was jealous of how green and springy it looked. With all the warm weather I've been spending a bunch of time working on the yard - it's hard to stay inside with the sun shining! Of course, I've already had to mow - twice in the back!

Here's a yard and garden tour, starting out back:

start of the new backyard border bed

My backyard slopes quite a bit down to a row of cedars that separate my yard from the swampyness that the cats are enjoying exploring. I'm not a huge fan of mowing it - it's a bit steep and frankly the front yard is more appealing to spend time in right now. I decided to decrease the space that I'll need to mow by creating a bed of plantings just below where the yard starts to crest. It'll wrap around towards the tamarack for now. Not sure I'll extend it further around - the hill is less steep, so I'll mow a bit further and put in a few apple tree seedlings I picked up this spring. I lucked out in there being several established beds - mostly lilies and iris', as well as some narcissus - so I had some plants to start with, and I've been collecting plants from friends, as well.

sweet screen porch
needs a paint job . . . so. much. green.

There are a few plantings bordering the screen porch. A few hosta's, iris's and ferns. The cats love to hide under there when it's raining and they insist on going out, so I haven't finished putting up the carpenter's cloth. Fingers crossed that no other critters take up under there! The grass is a little sparse right by this bed. I might expand it, or I may put down wood chips or something else. I also want to eventually put a little chip-stone patio just off the back door and deck. The porch and deck are in decent shape, although I need to get the deck feeling a little more stable with more supports under the middle.

west side yard

The west part of the yard has a fence separating me from the neighbors. Mom and I put in the trio of shrubs in the fall to start creating a block from the street. It's not a busy street, but my bedroom is on this side, so the illusion of privacy is nice. I transplanted the bulbs in the fall, and they seem to have taken quite well. There is also another perennial bed which is doing quite well. I'll be adding the raspberry and blackberry plants that my sister gave me for my birthday - they'll probably go to the left of the perennials, near my neighbors row of berries.

stoop & garden to the left of the door 

garden along the living room and spare room

Along the front of the yard are nice long beds, albeit right under the eaves - and the direct drip line. I need to get some gutters up, at least over the front stoop. Luckily, there are some in the fuel tank/garden shed. I need to pull them out and assess the situation, but I'm crossing my fingers that they'll help a bit. These beds have tons of iris', lilies, daffodils, and a few other things. Mom and I grabbed a peony from my grandfather's house, as I didn't think I had any. It's settled in and seems to be doing quite well. I'm debating a partial chip-stone patio off the stoop, to the left of the front door. The grass is a bit sparse under the tree, although it's nice to walk around in. I do want to redo the path with stone and the existing slate pieces - that might be a good starting point!

bulbs. so many bulbs.

The front garden was completely grown over with grass when I moved in last fall. The renters had a few things growing, veggie-wise (I found some carrots in late September!), bit it was a mess. I did a bunch of clearing in the fall, and saw a good amount of bulbs. . . clearly, there were tons. Now that things are coming up, I've also got a couple of peonies as well as some other perennials. I'm not sure what I'll do with the open space on this end - maybe herbs? I also plan to divide more of those bulbs and get them established along the west side of the house under the bedroom and office windows. The giant shrub to the back is a burning bush, and that thing is HUGE. Taller than me! I gave it a haircut from the underneath, and took out some dead wood. It seems very happy, so I'm just going to let it keep doing its thing. It makes a nice screen against the neighbors down the end of the driveway, too.

spirea, rhodi, lily

This spirea was here when I moved in. It's right next to the driveway, and, while I had put lights on it over the winter, they weren't all that visible come March:

let's play spot-the-spirea
thank you, plow-man, for not completely burying it

Thankfully the snow all melted, and in the last month I added a lily and hydrangea (they're kind of attached to each other), and my birthday rhododendron, courtesy of mom. We found it at Costco and it's doing great so far. This afternoon I dug up the sod and mulched around all three, creating a nice little bed. I'll add a picture tomorrow!

I'm excited about the yard so far. I still have a few things to work on. The three apple seedlings need to go in out back, the berries need to go in along the fence, two pear seedlings need to go in out front, and I need to get the veggie garden rototilled and plan out what I'm going to grow this summer. Some stuff I plan to start from seed, others I'll get starts of from the farmer's market. Of course, there are still a bunch of things to do inside the house, but with weather like this, it's hard to want to stay inside.