The Great Outdoors 2013

I had to take a couple days off after all that posting in October. I was beat! But after a couple of days away I am ready to start writing again and I thought I'd start by sharing what our backyard currently looks like.  Correction, this is what our yard looked like in early August. Right now it is overrun by three bajillion leaves. I can't figure out why, since we have no tall trees on our property. Leaves know to stay in their own yards, right?

Ok, so that first spring after we bought the house, and all the snow melted, I started exploring the gardens. The first one I cleared out is what we call the peony garden.



After pulling out all the dead stuff, I let it all grow that year to see what came up. Basically there was a big ol' peony bush (white ones) and a wild rose bush. There were also two small trees that I continually chop back (trees are hard to kill!) and a bunch of weeds and random stuff.



This is the garden bed that I really enjoy. It's filled with spring flowering plants, and I find myself out there every spring working on it, tweaking things, adding plants, etc. By the time summer rolls around, I'm sick of the heat, the humidity and the yardwork, so the rest of the yard is very low maintenance.



At the end of the first summer, the peony bed looked like this. Those tall green plants on the left hand side of the picture are milkweeds, and they are the bane of my existence. They are everywhere. I went back through my posts and found a picture of the wild rose and the peonies in bloom. They are gorgeous. 



By the way, I am in love with the weathered picket fence that we have on this side of our property. So much so, in fact, that when our neighbor was powerwashing and sealing his side of the fence this summer, and offered to do our side for us, I politely declined. I love the contrast of it against the plants, and it is a fantastic photo backdrop.

This is my peony bed as of August. So much healthier and prettier, right?



I've added daylily plants, divided the peony into four separate plants, and maintained that rose bush so it's actually a bush and not a wild thing. We also transplanted a knockout rose back here but it's not doing that well in this spot either. I'll give it one more season.


There are also a few Echinacea plants, Russian sage and some Asiatic lilies. One of my favorite plants was a gift five years ago from my sister in law, a wine n' roses Weigela. It has the prettiest dark red foliage, and has hot pink blooms for my birthday every year.


The daylilies in this bed were supposed to be deep red with a yellow center, and low to the ground like a stella d'oro daylily. They are, in fact, yellow and light peach, and much taller like a regular lily. But that's what I get for buying plants from Walmart, right? I think next year these are getting the boot from here, and getting transplanted next to the garage. We'll see.

Do you enjoy gardening, or is your yard all grass? Tell me all about it in the comments. :)