Spring Cleaning

Over Easter weekend Johanna came over to clean up our garden for the spring. I'm going to say, right here, right now, how amazing it is to have a sister who wants to do all of my gardening work for me! Up until very recently, I loathed the mere thought of digging in the dirt. Johanna has helped change my mind about that, for which I am grateful, but I still don't want to log the kinds of hours she does.

She worked all afternoon. After the Lianna went down for her nap (around 12:45) Johanna and I trekked out to the back yard to look at what we needed. We decided on a few annuals and some mulch. So we headed off to Home Depot. A short while later we had what we needed to get to work.

For a very brief period of time, say, maybe fifteen minutes, I was able to work unimpeded. But Lianna woke up from her nap early and insisted on spending time with me. So she and I worked on repotting a house plant. She also, very wisely, poured dirt in her hair (all the better to make it grow).

But the rest of the work in the garden was all Johanna's. She weeded. And then she weeded some more. And then she weeded even more. She may have moved a few of the smaller plants around, though not much. See, she gets bored of things being the same all the time, so she is prone to uprooting a plant (or five) and moving it to some other location. Surprisingly, the plants never seem to mind.

Then she took care of our rock wall. Somehow, every year, the wall begins to fall into disrepair. So she unstacks the rocks and restacks them to make them neater. Also, since we have been building up the soil in our beds (through compost and mulch and time and that failed permaculture experiment) our rock wall has gotten lost under the soil. It's actually quite impressive. When we moved in, the back yard was nothing but lawn. The first stones went right on the grass. Now those stones are buried under almost a foot of soil!

After the tinkering with the wall, Jo mulched everything and watered. She also planted the pretty flowers in the pots on the back deck (or maybe I did those?) and on the front steps. She did all the weeding and the mulching and the planting of the flowers in the front as well. Then, around 6:00 pm)  she went home to take a much needed shower and an even more needed rest. Truly, she is a rock star.

Without further ado, here are the before and after pictures:

The pretties

Head Gardener 

Sous Gardener

Sous Gardener-in-training

Front stair before

Front stairs after

Front yard before

Front yard after

Path before

Cherry corner before

Cherry corner after

Gnome before

Gnome after

Spiral before

Spiral after

Reading nook before

Reading nook after

Truth

Deck before

Deck after

Awning

Technically, the deck isn't part of our garden, but since it contributes to the overall outdoor feel, I felt like it would be appropriate to include it on this little blog. Anyway, Charles and I have wanted to put on awning on our deck since we first moved in. During the summer the sun blazes on our deck all morning and into the afternoon. It is not uncommon for the temperatures to reach triple digits by ten a.m. and hang out there until well past dinnertime. So we finally invested in an awning. This was as much for the use of the deck as it was to try to keep down the cost of our electric bill during the summer months.

Already we have had the chance to use it a few times because our weather has been unseasonably warm (followed by ridiculously cold). The children love it and Charles and I are pleased at how much more our deck feels like another room of our house, and not like some forbidden place no one wants to venture.

Also, Charles had every intention of installing this himself, but even with his handy tools he couldn't find the studs and so he didn't dare put it up himself. After all, it weighs nearly a ton. So we hired some guys to come out and install if for us. They were very, very friendly, kind to the children, brought their gorgeous Golden Retriever, and had the awning up in about forty-five minutes. If anyone (local) wants a recommendation for them (they also do fence work and deck work) I would be happy to pass along their information.

Finally, before we get to the photos, I have been trying to post an entry about our garden clean-up that took place over Easter weekend. But I can't seem to get my photos to talk to my computer. I should be able to see them on my photo stream. And I see photos from before and after that weekend just fine, but the ones I actually need are missing. So I have to beg Charles to solve this technical glitch. When he does, I'll treat you to some photos of what it looks like to have a garden all spruced up.

So, back to the awning. Here are the photos:

Before

After

Underneath

April Photos

Happy April Fool's Day! Here at Chez Williams we do not really celebrate this nonsense holiday, though I'm sure you will find this change in a few years when our kids enter school.

Just because she's cute

March was a fun month for the garden. We had a week and a half of unseasonably warm weather, up into the 80's (Fahrenheit) and so all of our plants woke up. Behind our home is a path lined with a fence. And just behind that path is a row of flowering pear trees. They are gorgeous when the come into bloom. A little neighbor girl calls them "snow trees" and she isn't far off. Watching them bloom is one of my favorite parts of early spring.

Pear trees

For some reason our garden wakes up a little later than most of the other garden-like spaces around here. Late in February all of the crocuses were showing up around town and ours didn't appear until March. Now it's April and our daffodils are just beginning to bloom, while all over town the daffodils are long past and the tulips are taking over. Our tulips are just coming up.

Forsythia

One of the most exciting parts of this spring has been the blooming of both of our cherry trees. We have a cherry tree in front of our house and one in the back corner. Both are supposed to produce fruit and not be simply ornamental. Last year we got three blossoms on our back tree and three corresponding cherries. The front tree just ignored spring. But this year both trees have had a pretty good number of blossoms, so I am hopeful we will actually get a handful or so of fruit. Of course, we are going to have to fight the birds. In future years we may need to net the trees until the fruit ripens, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Cherry tree out front

Now that it is April the weather is finally warm enough to move my bird bath back out into the back yard. I love, love, love my birdbath because it is a gorgeous splash of color. Plus, it is fun to watch birds act so silly in the water.

It's back!

Let's see, what else? Oh, yeah, Our wisteria is waking up and that means we have to prepare for its rapid growth. As you can see, last year we didn't anticipate such quick movement and the trellises that Charles built were not quite sufficient. This year he has only provided what I call stepping-stone-like-rods to help them get up onto our deck. We shall see if this proves sufficient or if he'll be out there mid-May adding more rods for them to grow on. My hope is that by the end of the summer all three wisteria will have made it to the back deck and will start working on covering it. I'm sure that five years from now, our back deck is going to be stunning!

Hyacinth

So far this spring Johanna hasn't had a chance to come out and spruce up our garden, but she's going to need to make some time soon. Our garden is a bit of a mess. Truth be told, our attempt at permaculture was not successful. We waited too long. There was not enough time for the cardboard to completely break down. So we have had to pull some of it back so the plants underneath it can thrive. We will experiment with this again, but not until October. We hare hopeful that the extra few months will enable the cardboard to completely break down. Anyway, it has left our garden looking messy.

Forsythia bush

 On the docket for this month (or maybe early in May) is not only the sprucing up of the garden, but the start of our latest experiment: the pallet garden! So stay tuned for more change throughout the month.

Strawberry leaf with dew

Daffodil faces

Creepers that are taking over the path!

Peony buds. I can hardly wait!

Sitting corner

Messy spiral

Garden path 

From the deck

Lilac buds

Back corner with the cherry tree

Corner near the compost pile