Our Changing Yard

Who plants peas on the 5th of June? I do, if I haven't gotten them in the ground earlier. It seems to me that last year we planted them on about the first of June, and we had fabulous yields of sugar snap peas for weeks even though peas are essentially a cool weather crop. I had some seeds left over from last year, so I plopped them in the ground on one end of the trellis, and planted some 2008 seeds starting at the other end. As of today, Jim says they're up on both ends. Yay for trying old seeds as well as new ones.

We really like Square Foot Gardening, and built our boxes several years ago. It really does cut down on about 85% of the work. Because we garden in boxes, we never step on the soil, so it doesn't get packed down, and we'll never have to till it again. In the winter we've been covering the soil in the boxes with a few layers of newspaper and a combination of leaves and grass clippings. If for some reason a box doesn't get planted the next spring, not only do weeds not grow, but the decomposing mulch keeps adding nutrients to the soil.

Jim put a flat board in the ground all around the outside of our garden to make mowing easier. As the years have gone by, the garden boxes have shrunk a bit, causing quite a gap to form between the boxes and the board. Unfortunately that's a fine place for weeds to grow. As I was taking the mulch off of one of the boxes, I realized I could stuff it in the crack, so that's what I started to do. I think it will work well. You can also see part of the fence around the garden. Jim made it in sections so we could open up one section at a time for working comfortably from the outside. We have two kinds of critters that these fences work well for keeping out--rabbits and our little dog, Angie. You see Angie likes vegetables, and in the past has pulled up peas and broccoli plants. Near the garden there is an especially delicious sight right now--pure eye candy. I had heard that clematis like to climb on climbing roses, so we planted some together. I'm bonkers about this particular clematis and rose combination.

Does anyone know the name of this blue clematis? It's my very favorite. I've probably got the name in a notebook somewhere.

Our mock orange bush has also been blooming on the other side of the back yard. My mom had one, and so did my grandmother, so we planted one in our yard to carry on the tradition. They are SO fragrant. Mom also had lilacs, a snowball bush, a flowering almond, and some peonies, so we planted some of those too. Traditions are nice.The group of hostas below is just down the way from the mock orange bush. (Mom didn't have hostas, but that's OK. I like them anyway. ^•^)

Going around to the front yard the scene is very different. The candytuft, with their white carpet of flowers so plentiful a few short weeks ago, have had their fling and are now producing light green seed pods which are pretty in their own right. (If you want to see what the candytuft used to look like, scroll down to the May 10 posting.) Now it's time for the "Cerastium Tomentosa" to show their own white blanket. (Helena told me that the common name is "Snow in Summer.") I love their silvery leaves and tiny, snow white flowers.Next we are greeted by roses that Barbie planted here some years ago, with a few coral bells peeking out.

The white astilbes are coming into their own now, with a lovely background of hosta leaves.

And last but not least is our Kousa Dogwood. And, if you look closely in the lower left corner you can see a hint of one of the June lilies that will decide to bloom in a few days.

This year we had a truly gorgeous spring. The transition to summer has happened much too quickly, but every year is different and brings its own promises. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next. --K