THIS is WAR!!!

Ok, I've been working away and admiring my labors, and so has someone else.....

Look closely, in the middle. It's taunting me! And, to make matters worse, it has THREE babies!!!!
TRIPLETS!!!!! They're cute, but they grow up to be 400lb eating machines.
There's nothing worse than planting a nice plant that's supposed to be "deer resistant" only to find out that no one told the deer that! Some of the things that have surprised me......passion vine (chowed), banana plants, (how do they know to eat those?), geum, all sorts of flowers including daylilies, and most confounding, potato plants, (the leaves are poison - sorry, but too bad it didn't at lease give them a bellyache)

I'll be on amazon today ordering myself a deer scare sprinkler. We've had one before, and it actually works pretty well. In 2 weeks, over the 4th of july, we're putting up our fence in the back, so that MIGHT slow them down a bit. ARGH!!!

On a happy note, today is labyrinth day. In a couple of hours, we'll be outside, in the rain (of course) building our long-awaited labyrinth.

Won't the neighbors be curious?
Oh, and by the way, these guys are NO help with the deer......those dang deer just look at them as if to say "what's your loud, barky problem?"
ARGH!!

 

 

Ok, here's the dirt.....

No, really, real dirt, and lots of it.
On wednesday this week, they delivered ANOTHER 15 yds of dirt. It was raining, so I didn't get a chance to start until friday. I've been plugging away at it for the last 2 days, and I'm about 1/3 of the way through the new pile....

This is all going in the back now. The big metal thing is a piece of art. It needs the rest of it's parts. The rock will be a landscape feature (there's another one too) This area will be the white/moon garden. I'm also looking at putting some stepping stones in there and making a path - it's a pretty large area and needs to be broken up a bit.

Today we're also finishing the fountain in back. All solar. When it's sunny, the water rises up to the top and flows over the top pot. (that's the neighbors house back there, not ours)

 

We need to make a run to get a new solar pump, but it'll be done today.....

 

Some other things in the works....

Next saturday I'll be taking a concrete leaf class. It sounded like fun and I'm hoping it will inspire me to jump back into mosaics.

Also next weekend, on sunday, the labyrinth will be installed. We went and got all the rocks last week (hopefully enough), and we'll be helping to lay them out. There will definitely be pics...

 

And.....in other news, our new kitty, which we found out is a girl, will be ready soon. She weighs about 1.5 lbs, well on her way to the 2lb minimum, and is getting cuter every day. We can hardly wait for ziggy pop to come home and join the herd.

Ok, I think I'm tired now.....

Remember that 15 yard pile of dirt from last week??

all gone....oh, and see that fence in the background? That's new too. It blocks the view from the new house to the old house. (which SHOULD be done, closed, and sold on the 20th).

But, where did the dirt go?

In the back beds, of course. Nice grass, huh? No worries, it's new. It'll fill in.

We also went and got rocks for the labyrinth yesterday......

literally a TON of rocks. We need to make one more trip today, and then that should be enough. The nice rock folks are letting us hand pick the ones we want. (although they think we're a bit nuts - nothing new there).

I also made a HUGE score.....

 

There's a mail-order peony and daylily place here in olympia that was having a clearance sale at the farmer's market. I got these on friday.....and then went back on saturday and they had different stuff. No pics of those, but it was about this much again. They were all $2, including the 7 tree peonies and 3 itoh peonies I got. They need some love, dirt, and patience, but next year, watch out!

(going back again today, just because). So far, I've gotten about $1000 worth of plants for about $100. Will they all make it? Probably not, but it's still a HUGE bargain!

 

We also had a bit of a setback this week.......

 

 

these USED to be strawberries. Damn deer

 

Next week, more dirt, more rocks, finishing the fence, and a master gardener plant fire sale

YAHOO!!

 

moving a mountain

So, the landscapers are finished, the grass is growing, and I have a mountain of dirt to move. We didn't have them put dirt in the flower beds in the back because, well, they charge a lot.  I can haul dirt.
So, this week, I'll be moving this little mountain.

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me. It's about 6 feet tall..... I can only do so much, because I like to be able to walk the next day. I'm funny like that. So, I'll  be plugging away at it this week.

The front is coming along. The labyrinth will be installed on the 23rd. Next weekend, we're off to get rocks for it, so we'll be ready.

On the old house front, the inspection is done, the appraisal will probably be this week, and things are moving along (again).

Off to dig......