Spring 2018

Good morning!
Some of these are from a couple weeks ago--I <think> the back and side yards are almost "done"....This morning I released 1500 ladybugs and hung two egg sacs of praying mantis..I'm hoping this solves the Japanese beetle and aphid issues of last summer (bonus if they eat the slugs in the garden, but I'm not holding my breath on that...I have my jar of Sluggo ready).  I've sprinkled the garden with red pepper to keep the creepy voles out (and the bunnies).  I'm hopeful!

 Side yard--ignore that last corner with the wheelbarrow...we have plans for it...eventually...the girl is relaxing on her chaise lounge..courtesy of a neighbor moving out who left it on the curb with a "free" sign.

 Plant starts, patiently waiting to be moved outside...sometime...tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, and flowers.  If the weather stays ok they might get a couple hours of outside time today or later this week.

 It's hard to see because the onions in the back are out of control, but there is a thriving blackberry (raspberry?) bush in the front--this is last week, it has taken over that whole corner this week.

 St. Francis and his livestock (birds, bunny, trash panda  racoon, chicken, frog...

 The peach tree and its blossom seem to have recovered from the cold weather and sleet last week, so I have high hopes for a couple peaches this year...

 Another "save" from the moving neighbor--a rubber tree..unfortunately, poisonous to house pets, so it lives on the front porch.  If it survives the summer it might get to go to work with me (and if it doesn't, I'll use the pot for something)

 The lone (of 5) surviving redwood from a family wedding a few years ago--it looks pretty good though!  Soon I guess we will have to find him a place in the yard (maybe in the front?)

 Godzilla leaving the gnome village...enough said..

 Old man beach gnome, not concerned at all about the village carnage (he's at the beach, man...)

 Geraniums, poisonous to dogs, so they have to stay outside, too. Morrison already sampled them and immediately threw up.  Fantastic.

 Garden is planted, except for the seedlings above (and a lot of them might go into pots)--carrots, leeks, spinach, beets, herbs, asparagus, garlic, onions, green onions, strawberries and probably things I've forgotten are in.  It rained and sleeted this week and I was a little worried about the seeds, but they have sprouted like crazy this week!

Ironically, the greenhouse has become a bit of a staging area instead of a plant growing area.  I considered moving the seedlings out, but is is so much easier to water them from inside that I left them for now.


So how are your gardens?

Butterfly Bonanza!

I'm very happy that we planted lilacs and butterfly bushes--check our our visitors this morning! (Yes, I know they might be moths...I'm not letting any in the house)...

Hello, Garden and Yard

We've been doing some work on the yard and garden--first priority (after "the usual") is to clean up the side yard. We've been able to use a lot of our leftover materials from other projects and it is coming along nicely.

First up--using the pavers left over from the "along the driveway" project (adding a path so people can walk from the sidewalk to the front door).  We added a little to the front of the porch--connecting the front walkway, to a walkway leading to the back gate.  We trimmed the tree and shrubbery as well--it turned out nice! We are about two pavers short, but have some ideas (other than buying more pavers).  Now people can come from the street to the backyard!


Next project--improving the drainage, adding a path, and cleaning up the side yard.  Water has a tendency to collect near the tree in the distance and the dogs were constantly digging in the area to the left.  Last weekend we added some more fencing, that will eventually hold gardens, this weekend involved moving a lot of rock.  Next up is putting in drain pipe and a small side yard patio, as well as extending the existing path to the front gate.

 The entrance from the front is looking pretty good--I'm happy with today's progress!
















Welcome to the backyard!

I would starve as a real homesteader

I feel like I've said this before and it's undoubtedly true.  This has been a rough year for the garden so far--I didn't do a good job of planting and then the beetles came.  The photo here isn't mine, it came from an exterminator's website, but the leaves look just like all of mine.  Yuck.  I haven't seen too many beetles, but their damage is evident.  I've invested in insecticidal soap, and had some limited success, but it also appears that there are slugs/grubs/something blechy eating the plant roots as well. Ugh.  Oh ,well, it's just a hobby, right?

Recently the topic of chickens has come up again. On the plus side, if they survived the dog and the coyotes, (and the bears, and the cougars, and the cold), they might eat the beetles (score!)....but on the negative side, well, they're chickens.  I think I'd rather get another dog and buy eggs at the store like always.  I kind of like the idea of chickens, but I really don't like actual chickens much...they are prickly and require attention and care.

We harvested the sunflower heads tonight--because of the ongoing bug and mouse and bird infestations, the sunflower heads are in paper bags on the patio covered in cheesecloth for a few days--hopefully by the time you read this they will be ready to detach the seeds!

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll see if there are any carrots and potatoes...I'm waiting for it to get cold!

The yard is pretty...

Because we continue to have random hail and snow (not kidding...had a foot of snow last weekend), the plants are still in the house--tomatoes, cucumbers, dragon fruit, peppers....Hopefully I'll get them all in the garden soon.  

 The back yard looks pretty good, all things considered--this is before Mr. IM added some mulch today--notice  the new flower boxes with herbs and flowers in them

I think they turned out very nice!

Hope you are enjoying lovely spring weather!

Mmmmm....and other stuff...

On the "good news front", the corn from the garden was really yummy this year.  The bad news?  There seems to be only one ear.  Tonight we cut it into fourths and we each had a tiny, yummy bit of corn. IM says that next summer the garden "needs more sheep poo compost".  Sure.  Whatever...

The tomatoes are starting to be ready and the cucumbers, carrots,  and peppers continue to grow.  Today I harvested the smaller bucket of potatoes--I wasn't thrilled with the harvest...not many potatoes...but the soil was really wet, and I think they like drier soil...maybe next year we'll have to put the buckets further from the sprinkler.  I have high hopes for the big bucket though...high hopes...I'll just keep singing the "Potatoes in a Bucket" song....

Other than last weekend's pickles I haven't frozen or canned much either--
Kind of makes me sad when I see Zucchini being used for games like "toss the zucchini" and "zucchini car crash" on facebook...I want to say, "no, no! Freeze it!  Dry it!  It will be good in the winter!!!! Give it to the food bank....Ack!  Stop playing with your food!"


Also this weekend, IM started using some of the pallets from our landscaping projects (to make room for more pallets next summer when we "do" the side yard?).  This buffet/bar is his first creation--he says it "sucked up a lot of paint-he had to go back to the store to get more...the next pallet project will probably be a freestanding flower box thing....something to cover up the electrical box in the "secret garden" because we moved the bistro set (keep reading).  The problems with the pallets are 1. They are not made of good wood (duh?) , so they are super splintery and it is possible to get "death splinters"  (not kidding) 2.  It is super challenging to break them apart, due to the crazy spiral nails (yes, we know, use a "all saw") 3.  They suck paint...4.  They are crazy heavy. But it was fun to make something out of them that is useful...now we have to find a way to create a custom screen (like at an old drive up window) for that window, so we can just pass things out from the kitchen and still keep the cat in and the bugs out.



While The Boy sold Cub Scout popcorn at King Soopers (want to buy some?) for four (yes, four) hours, I browsed the "clearance" plants--found a strawberry plant in a hanging basket for $2 and a big basket of mums for $5.  The mums are particularly awesome, because they are identical (except for more dead blossoms) to the $17 baskets of mums...score!  A little pruning by me and my bargain basket is ready for the new patio.



 The new patio, with the clearance mums, basket of strawberries (hidden behind bistro set) and the old bistro set (from our first Denver apartment...awwww)

The yard is looking pretty good!  My hummingbird friend has been at the feeder a lot lately--he is a pretty little guy--I hope he has his winter plans ready, we hear it may be snowy this year (blah).  The tarp is left from painting the buffet/bar and harvesting the potatoes...it is back in the garage now

 These are some of the wildflower mix that IM spent all summer telling me were weeds--don't they look pretty?  I mean, they might be weeds, but they are pretty weeds!  And now that they have flowers, there is a good chance that I was right and they are really the wildflower mix that I think I planted!

 Ack!  The catnip has spread to the flower boxes...it is taking over....

 The last three pictures aren't very clear, I was laughing so hard I didn't get good pictures.  A couple weeks ago our pets, the dynamic quadruplets, managed to rip the screen door again.  Fan.tas.tic.  So, we tried to fix it and realized that the screen needs to be re-done, and that just wasn't going to happen this weekend...so we put a baby gate across it.  Indy, the wonder dog, went outside, and apparently we weren't moving fast enough to let her in...so she used her little velociraptor claw, moved the screen, pushed the gate over, and came in.  Liberty, of course, could not figure out how she did it, and stood by the door, waiting to be let in (ironic, since she is the one that broke the screen in the first place) while Alice The Cat hovered behind the curtain, preparing to make a fast break..

By the time I finished laughing, these two had flopped down (notice the identical poses) to contemplate their next foray into chaos.

Never a dull moment around here.

Fairy, er, Gnome, Village

I keep seeing ideas on Pinterest and other places to create a fairy or gnome village.  I really didn't have any great desire to, until I was sitting on my porch on the Fourth of July and noticed the perfect spot under the front yard maple tree.  The Boy and I went inside, to our friend the internet, and discovered that fairy houses are expensive.  Hmm.. What shall we do?  I already had some small gnomes, from Hobby Lobby and Walmart clearance in previous years, so that part was easy.  The kids and I found some old flower pots and used sharpies to make gnome houses.  We're not sure that IM likes what we did, but it doesn't show from the street, so its ok.

Making the houses

The (almost) finished village...we've added a gnome and some more toadstools since this photo was taken.  I think they will have to come in for the winter, but  for now, the gnomes look pretty happy in their little flower garden!

Winter is coming!

I took a few pictures of the yard/deck at the end of September and beginning of October--

Liberty checking out the last of the flowers for the year..

 My secret owls and bunny, waiting for the snow, protected in their little "houses"













 A few last roses near the bird feeder

 It looks so pretty--hard to believe snow is predicted!

Bunny, Bunny, Bunny

The other day we had a visitor to our yard…can you find him? Or maybe it is a her?  At least it wasn’t a coyote or a mountain lion!  Stay out of my garden, Bunny…