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.......

 

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....

 

well, it's a start

So. last night, we went out....first time in a long time. We went to zoo lights (totally fun), and then out to dinner......We didn't get home until about 10 or so, WAY past our bedtime. Imagine our surprise when we got a phone call this morning from a guy saying he would be here in 15 minutes to fix our deck. Good thing we were up......

They've been working on it all day, taking the boards off, cutting them down and putting them back on with a larger gap. It actually looks better than I thought it would. This is great, because now, this spring,  we can pressure wash it and stain it the way it should be. It will also drain when it rains, and not turn into a giant mud puddle. YEAH!!!!
One problem down.

Now we just need to see some progress on the floors, and I'll be happy.....

On another note, we planted 3 new things today, a black hellebore, a large pink peony, and a fuschia for the hummingbirds. We also put up two different bird feeding stations. Progress!! Now I just need to find that feeder that we stashed somewhere when we moved.

Next up......goals for next year

I'll leave you with some cool zoo lights.

 

 

 

 

snow day!

It snowed here this week.....just enough to make a mess

 

It was all gone in the same day, and luckily, we didn't really have to go anywhere. Makes the doggies, crazy, though.....

There's not much going on here....all quiet for the holidays and the like. Soon, we'll be going to the flower show! Yeah!!! I've already started to try to win tickets this year, we'll see.

Y'all know I'm not much for the holidays here, so instead of visions of sugarplums, I'll have visions of new plants.......I can hardly wait till the weather cooperates.

The cold spell is finally over....

But the yard looks like someone took a blowtorch to it.

I was out there chopping on the frozen things yesterday, and there is some hope......you can see the little red buds of the peonies, a few daffodils and crocus are poking their heads up,  and there's some perennials that actually survived. We'll just have to see what comes back in the spring.

This week, I succumbed to the hellebores at the garden center, and brought home a pretty cool single black one.....they had some really interesting ones there, yellow with pink accents, one called raspberry splash.....I might have to have a couple more before winter is over. My new acquisitions are hanging out in the (warmer) garage for now. They'll go out officially sometime in February...
I'm also looking forward to cruising the bare root stuff at Costco this year. Last year, we couldn't do it, because we didn't have a yard, and didn't know when we would. There's some great deals on bare root stuff, and by the time summer's over, they're just as big as the things in pots. I'll be looking for some grapes, and a couple more fruit trees and shrubs to add to our empty back yard.

I also got a really cool thing this week to add to our dragonfly theme.......
drunken dragonflies!

 

They fit right in, and they're really cool! Thanks Pam!

 

This week, it's supposed to be warmer, with a few dry days. We're on vacation AGAIN, and hopefully can make more progress on the list than we did last time. (which was pretty much none).

There are a couple of holidays in there, but that doesn't really matter.....

 

I'll leave you with my view from the porch this week. I LOVE living here!

 

I think I like the rain better.

This week, it's been bitter cold here. Now, we can handle some cold, but 17 degrees day or night is too much for anyone. I was SO looking forward to how beautiful my garden was going to be in the spring, and right now, it looks devastated. Everything is frozen, the ground is frozen, the plants are frozen, even the hummingbird feeders are frozen. (yes, we defrost them every day, poor things). The only thing that's not frozen are the hummingbirds themselves. They're zooming around, fighting for the feeders and eating like crazy.

It's supposed to defrost by the end of the week, but not before a potential bit of snow/freezing rain/ice that will shut this place DOWN. (good knitting weather, I guess).

The clearance bin at the nursery yielded a nice, 5 gallon peony this week for half price. I was afraid to buy anything else, since the pots were mostly frozen solid. I'll go back in the spring and see what still has some green on it when it thaws. Right now, the peony is hanging out in the garage, where it's not frozen, and hopefully it'll still be alive to plant in the spring. It's probably going to be the only plant out there after this......

See how everything just looks like it's burned???? it's just frozen.
:(

snow?? seriously???

Although it's 50 degrees and raining here today, we're supposed to have a very drastic change in the weather tomorrow. A cold front is coming in, and with the rain hanging around, we are MAYBE supposed to have some snow. Hate it, hate snow. It looks good, but the driving possibilities suck around here, since no one knows what to do. (personally, I know what to do - stay home).

Actually, if we do get snow, that will be good for the garden, because the sub freezing temps are expected to stay all week, and the snow will act as an insulator. Poor babies, I hope they make it.

This week, the clearance bin at the nursery coughed up a hardy fuschia for $5. I'll be going back at the end of the week for more (unless it snows). They also had some nice itoh peonies, more fuschias, and some other goodies that would love to spend the winter in my garage for half price. They'll all be just fine in the spring, no worse for the wear.

In house news, the report is back from the flooring inspector. Guess what?????  They installed the flooring wrong! Coulda saved them some money by just saying "I told you so". The next step will be for our contractor to get his own estimates, he doesn't like ours, and take them to the installer's insurance company. This is going to be long, drawn out, and ugly by the time it's done.....
UGH!!