July Photos (or lack thereof)

Sorry about the lack of July photos. This month has totally gotten away from me. Honestly, I didn't even think about snapping some shots until about the 10th of the month. My excuses are twofold: our blasted kitchen remodel and Johanna's move. 

Johanna moved into our basement last weekend and I am thrilled to have her here. Top on her list is getting our garden under control. We have neglected it a lot in the last month and haven't mown nearly as frequently as we should have. It looks like an untamed jungle out there. 

The grass is almost mid-calf height. It's insane. Also, we have volunteer squash plants that have come up. One is in our compost pile and it looks like it is on steroids simply because it is thriving off of straight compost. The other one came up amongst out strawberry plants and has now grown to such proportions that it has reached up and snagged a branch from our fig tree and is making it's way further up the tree. 

All in all, our garden is a shambles. But in the next week or so Johanna will have it back under control and then I'll get some shots for the beginning of August. Until then I am off to enjoy the first lazy days I have this summer. 

June Photos

On the 1st of June I took photos of the garden, but life has gotten in the way of actually posting them. See, we are in the middle of a kitchen remodel, which is stressful enough, but then, to top things off, the remodel went a little wrong along the way. So, instead of being done by the 15th of June (which was our target date) we are now on the 26th and still in full swing. It has disrupted my life considerably and I have not had much time or energy to dedicate to this blog. However, I haven't neglected all of my duties and I did manage photos. 


June is a beautiful month in Virginia, and one of my favorites when it comes to the garden. All of the lilies start blooming! I adore lilies. (Actually, I once told Charles to never buy me roses because I don't like them much, but if ever he's in doubt, just pick lilies of any variety and I will be happy.) We have day lilies, asian lilies, calla lilies, and others as well. It makes me so extremely happy! 


Additionally, our blackberries are ripening. This year we got smart and netted our black berry "bush" and that has made all the difference in the world. Last year we didn't get to eat a single berry and this year I've picked at least three pints worth already. Yippee!


Other than that, our time has been spent, watering, lying in the hammock (great investment!), playing in the kiddie pool, and even picnicking in the garden. I am so happy with the amount of time we are getting to spend out there this year. 

The kiddos enjoying the hammock

All of the photos of the garden were taken on the 1st of June except for the calla lilies (the purple and white flower), which were taken today, the photo of the blackberry loot, which was taken last week, and the photo of the kids enjoying the hammock, which was also taken today. Without further ado:

St. John's wart blossom

St. John's wart 

Lily!

Beauty berry bush (yikes!)

Cherry tree corner

Asian Lilies (a gift from my son last year)

Lilac/butterfly bush corner

Blackberries beginning to ripen

Spiral

Japanese maple corner (soon to be renamed the Fig corner, because WOW!)

Pallet garden

Blackberry loot!

Calla

Calla lily bush

May Photos

These photos are a few days late, but I have a terrific excuse: my sisters and I went to the beach for the weekend! Jessica (who lives in Phoenix, Arizona) flew in and she, Johanna, and I drove to Lewes, Delaware for a weekend without kids, without husbands, and without distractions. It was lovely. Also, my photos are not all uploading to "the cloud" so they don't appear in my photo stream. Apparently this only applies to any photos I take from the garden. I can't figure out what is going on, so I have had to hook my phone up to my computer. Annoying. And so, I am more than a week late posting photos. However, they were taken on the first of the month.

May is a month of incredible growth in our yard. The wisteria, which is gorgeous, becomes unmanageable. Every time we go outside it reaches out and attacks someone. But, the jungly feel of our garden is also part of the fun. Oh, and later this month our strawberries should be fully ripe. Yummy! Tomorrow I have plans to go out and net the strawberries and the blackberries so that the birds (and rabbits) don't eat them all before we get a chance to.

Also, we put up a butterfly house for the kids to enjoy. We also put up a bat house! I am beyond excited about this, since I have wanted a bat for as long as I can remember. I have distinct memories of trying to convince my mother to buy me a bat. I had some very persuasive points, but she didn't seem to follow my vision. Well, this is one time when my childhood vision is actually a great idea! So we got a bat house and I am now sending out vibes to all the bats of Norther Virginia telling them to come live here!

Finally, we tried our hands at a pallet garden! I have plans of posting all about that sometime soon, but I will include one picture of it for you to enjoy.

Here's our humble garden in May:

Japanese Maple corner

Spiral

Blackberries!

Can you see our gnome?

Cherry tree and bird bath

Wisteria blossom

Strawberries!

Front garden: wisteria takeover

Pallet Garden

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