It is June and wow, the warm weather has been amazing for my yards/garden. We have had a streak of warm temps (not hot, but mid 70’s), that has everything reaching out. The only downside is we are on city water now, so I have to be very careful with watering. Where we lived before, we had a communal private well and only paid a set price for water. Here though, we have 2 water meters. One for inside, one for outside. And outside is 4x the cost. AHHHHHHHHH! Thankfully I couldn’t care if the lawn is dead 😉 And one can have lots of pretty yard bling. My favorite place to shop is the local Grocery Outlet. Our local one carries the cutest yard items, and they affordable!
As I got into working on the established beds, and Ford helped me dig out dead or ugly plants, I kept ignoring the side of the house. There was a bed that was horribly overgrown/unloved, with a Japanese Maple Tree in it. The tree was so overgrown, the bed had little sun. So I set out to cut up and shorten the reach of the branches, on both sides of the fence. I found in the weeds 7 rose bushes. One had to come out, as we need to access the electrical conduit under it, so we can get the hot tub running. But I left the rest. All but one were climbing roses … With no support. Sigh. I quickly put tomato cages on the worst ones, staked the largest, and put a trellis on the non-climber, so it can have huge blooms, with no flopping over. Oh, and I found a blueberry plant there, along with a strawberry plant. I fertilized all the roses, and suddenly, the corner is popping (this photo is actually about a week and a half ago).
One of the rose bushes is putting on roses bigger than my hands! In both yellow and a pink hue….from this morning:
I added in annual flowers and a bunch of native strawberries. And lots and lots and lots of yard bling. And this corner soaks in the sun a good half of the day now!
Mr. Owl says he is keeping the birds out of the strawberries 😉
When we moved, I crammed strawberry plants into every container I had on hand. The boys have been so happy. The past few days the summer harvest has started, with ripe berries everywhere. With them in hanging baskets, ground containers and in the ground, it keeps them busy hunting. I am actually surprised with how many the boys are getting. At the old house the squirrels porked out on berries. I have noticed the squirrels here are not so domesticated. Which I am OK with. And the heavy crow population keeps the other birds down to a nice amount.
I was really concerned with my native Red Huckleberries, I wondered if the move would be harsh. But with the steady sun/and shade of the cherry tree (yep, that tree I couldn’t ID? It is a cherry tree!), the bushes are doing well, and loaded this year.
I almost left my Raspberry plants behind. Then I thought about how much the boys love the berries. They are now potted in large pots (which I had to haul off the deck here, but hey, they were free!). Walker noticed last night that one of the Golden Raspberry plants was ripening. We had raspberries last night and today for lunch, warm from the morning sun. Two Golden, two Red, 2 Marionberry and 1 seedless Blackberry are in the garden.
The potted garden is puttering along. Of the two swimming pools, one is full of carrots, the other is green beans and pumpkins. Tomatoes, 3 kinds of Basil, zucchini and so much more:
The herb bed is filling in as well:
Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I had so much fun building my fire area. The chairs, tables, fire pit and pavers came with the house. It was all on the deck. There was a very ugly (and non-native) evergreen growing there, I hacked it out and put my setup there. It sits back in the far corner of the yard, near the gate that takes one out to the trail behind our house. We need to do deck repairs, and I wanted a table/chairs so we can eat outside. I’ll post photos once I get the set built. I have the side chairs/table and the big table/umbrella up, but need to put all the dining chairs together. The blueberry and huckleberry bushes I brought over (over 30), line the fence. All seem to have taken OK with the transplanting, and many are loaded this year.
And I have been reading a lot more since we got into the new house. I have so much more potential garden space, but also so much more sun. The yard is flat and well lit. While I loved the shade we had in the old house, it didn’t always make the best for growing. It had too much shade – with fully mature trees (which was great as noted for napping in the shade and keeping Google sat. images out of our yard…..)
The Grow Your Own Food Handbook: A Back to Basics Guide to Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Fruits and Vegetables
Vertical Vegetable Gardening: A Living Free Guide
FTC Disclaimer: We received review copies.