Sunday, January 26, 2014

taking it easy today

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and I spent it painting....and painting.....and painting.
I know it doesn't look like much, but it's the first coat of primer (there's only going to be one). The next step will be do it all over again with the same green that's the house color. One more thing (halfway) off the list.
When the paint job is done, we'll root out the sun and moon collection and put them all up. It's not happening today, that's for sure. After a whole day up and down the ladder, I think I need a nap.

Today, we're planting these guys.....


two bare root trees, a combo plum, and a combo pear, both dwarf. They'll go in the back where, hopefully, they'll be a bit protected from the deer, since the bulk of the fence is done. I plan on planting the rest of my goodies today and maybe doing a bit of weeding, just for fun.

It's coming along....spring is springing, the garden show is in 2 weeks, and things are popping up all over. It's fun to go out and clean up, only to see the tiniest bits of peonies, bleeding hearts, daffodils and other perennials starting to grow. Makes me think it's going to work out....

Sunday, January 19, 2014

finishing the compound....

Since I was MIA last week, there are a couple of things to catch up on......

During our Christmas/new year's break, we made a trip to home depot, just to "look and price" fencing and gates. We were pleasantly surprised to find a couple of gate options that would work perfectly to finish our back yard, and they weren't too expensive. The problem was, they just had one of each. So we decided to bite the bullet, jump in the truck and just go get them. That morphed into a "few" posts and some parts, and now we're ready to cross off a big "honey do" from our list.....finishing the front part of the fence.

This makes me pretty happy because it means the deer might be slowed down a bit when coming into the back yard. Note: "might be slowed down". Hopefully, they'll just move on to greener grass somewhere else and quit eating our poor trees.

We're now calling it "the compound".
 
That last open bit will be done today (had to go buy more fencing). It will be nice to be able to let the doggies out - supervised, of course - to hang on the bit of lawn this summer.  Where the green chair is will be the chicken coop. As you can see, we still have some things to do, but this is a big step.
 
There's only one more section of fence that needs to be done in the back, about 50' more, and we will be completely confined. Good for doggies, bad for deer. TAKE THAT!!
 
In plant news......my sister and I attended a Hellebore workshop yesterday at a local nursery. It was really informative and fun and I learned that you practically can't kill them. I found one I've been looking for, called onyx odyssesy (a double black), and then came home and went to another nursery and found a couple more. One was discounted 40percent off (my kind of plant), it's white, and one was "lady in red". According to the hellebore gal that gave the talk, it's the "must have" plant this year, and in short supply, You can see why....
That bloom is a good 3" across. It's really stunning.
 
The clearance rack also yielded some fun last week.....a giant clematis "nelly moser", gorgeous white and pink 6" blooms (later), a heuchera, obsidian - totally black, a cool hot pink daylily, some species tulips that were free with a purchase, and some iris bulbs that were too cheap to pass up.
 
This week, we're going to the Tacoma home and garden show. My sister wants to remodel her bathroom, so we're looking for ideas. I'll also be looking for gardening "stuff". We're hoping to attend a mason bee clinic and get some supplies for our bee colonies. This is a warm up for the big seattle flower show in a couple of weeks. I can hardly wait!
 
P.s. the bare root plants are starting to come in to the nurseries too.......
 

Saturday, January 4, 2014

new year, new list....

So, the deck is fixed. All that needs to be done is to clean and apply a stain/sealer. Can't do that until it's dry and just a bit warmer than 35 degrees.

Here we are in a new year. The house is done, the shop is roofed....but, wait, there's still a wishlist of things to be done.

This year, some of the things we want to accomplish.....
Finish the fence the rest of the way. We just have a gate on one side and about 40' with a couple of gates on the other, to have a completely fenced, hopefully deer resistant yard. We made huge progress on that today with a field trip to home depot. Our little impulse buy resulted in a 6'chain link panel that will make a great garden side gate, another couple of panels that will be the gate by the dog kennel, and the posts that we will need to finish. Why not.....now all we need to finish is another roll of chain link. Hopefully that will at least slow the deer down.  They're eating machines.....

some other projects.....
build a stone patio, fire pit, and bbq table along side the house. We'll have to level the area and get the stones, but we already have the firepit, and we'll use the leftover tile from the fireplace to make the bbq table.

finish painting the shop and the pump house.

build a dry stream bed in the back corner of the lot where nothing will grow because it turns into a swamp when it rains.

build a grape arbor along the fence, a copper trellis for the sweet peas, and some permanent supports for tomatoes in the raised beds.

Get the pump for the cistern up and working so that we can water the garden with rainwater...the original plan.

Clean and stain the deck...

somehow score a couple of loads of woodchips to mulch the front and back flower beds.

PHEW! I'm tired already! I'm SURE there will be more, but that's a pretty good start.
The thing about gardening is that it's constantly evolving.
I'll leave y'all with some pics of the yard the way it is today......we've made quite a bit of progress. I can hardly WAIT for spring! This was last may, the landscapers had just started.....


 
here we are today....winter and all....