Today, I decided I'm going to go in the opposite direction of my usual posts. You know how I'm terrible about taking pictures? Well, I'm trying to do better. So, today I took my camera out into my yard.
When we moved to this house, the yard had been badly neglected. Someone with knowledge of plants could look at our yard and see that, once upon a time, someone had loved this yard, but it had been a very, very long time since that day.
There are still issues. Our outside water pressure sucks, so our lawn is mostly weeds. (What else can you do when your sprinkler--any sprinkler-- will only spray four feet in any direction?) The front yard has two gigantic maple trees that fill the ground with hairy roots, and don't allow any sunlight to fall on my flower beds. And the beds are full of rocks. Like, someone had, at some point, mulched with white gravel, and then someone else had come in and put dirt over the top of that. Because of all these issues, my front yard is not pretty. I just haven't had the time or money or energy to tackle it yet.
But my back yard... It's starting to really kick ass.
Just for a point of reference, the first two are pictures I took on the day we did the home inspection. (April 8, 2008. Time really does fly. I feel like I just got here.)
The back fence, the apple tree, and the oak tree (You'll get to see the difference soon.)
From my backdoor looking out. We didn't even have the privacy fence when we moved in. I'm really glad we had the foresight to do that. BoyWonder is quite wise sometimes. Again, pretty barren.
Fast forward to this week:
The herb bed. This was one of the first beds I started. In the second picture from the inspection, this bed is located on the left side of the sidewalk, before it branches off to the shed. (Note to self: need a picture from the back door.) It's also some of the crappiest soil in my yard, so I'm amazed anything decides to live there. So, growing here, we've got some walking onions (all the tall stuff), sage tucked in with the onions to the back of the bed, lemon thyme sprawling all over the middle, and then some oregano off to the right just a bit. I have parsley seed I need to sprinkle out there, too.
Some cheap-o lily bulbs I bought last year. They don't look as pretty on the screen as they did in real life.
Under the oak tree at the very back of the yard. One side is way more lush than the other. There's a ton of stuff in here that may or may not bloom (hollyhocks, several mystery plants, cosmos, mallows, oriental lilies, surprise lilies, tons of garlic chives that happen to look a lot like grass, and... probably more that I'm forgetting). Also, lots of tiny ornaments in here.
The same bed, just a little further back. (I know, I need to tidy up a bit.)
I buried a crap-ton of pumpkin seeds here when I had that pumpkin-carving marathon for halloween. I won't be sad if they die, but I'll be really happy if I have pumpkins.
Lemon balm. This started out as a 3" pot three years ago. And it has reseeded in new patches, too. Anyone want some tea?
The apple tree. It's pretty now, all covered in blossoms. But in the summer, the apples attract wasps and squirrels, and the apples don't even taste good. We're going to cut it down this fall, because it blocks a lot of sun from the garden beds, and my stepdad is going to use the wood to smoke food.
Hostas! I really thought they died in the heat and the drought last year. But there they are!
More hostas. Not quite as robust as the others, but these have more yellow on them, so they look like they're glowing in the shade.
My first iris of the year. I've never had a bloom this color, so I don't know what's up.
Can you see how sparkly the petals are? I love them.
These poor hollyhocks are trying to compete with the irises. I think that this year they may finally lose the battle.
This just looks like spring.
Blurry field of irises.
If you can tell me what this flower is, I'll make you cookies.
First mallow bloom.
And an apple blossom. I thought I should get a picture since it won't be here next year.
So... That's my back yard. I want to try to get some better shots from a distance, so I can see the progress I've made on a bigger scale. And I'm always doing new things. There's something amazing about helping things grow, and there's something deeply comforting about plants. They do miraculous things to survive. It's their only purpose. They just keep going and going until eventually they can't.
It's definitely something I need to think about when I'm feeling lost.
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