Category: side yard

Reward

If September through December was a long stretch of digging, and March was all just anticipation, then April has been the beginning of the reward. We are immersed in views of brilliant flowers, with green tulip buds still everywhere waiting for a few more days of warmth and sunshine. The daffodils, more blooms by the day, are just a living force of color, and the shocking orange-red Praestans Fusilier tulips are so tiny (they start blooming at about 5″ tall), and then they keep opening more blooms until they have five on the same plant – something I’ve never seen before. They’re spectacular. I have five patches of them along the walk, and they’re so attention-grabbing.

Here’s the view from the master bedroom – it’s a great way to wake up, and every time I go by during the day, or to the path, or to the family room, they all sing out, a riot of growing things in amidst the blue and the rocks and the mulch.

All of the re-leveling and rocks were expensive, sanding and repainting the chairs took eons, and then there was so much hard work of all the choices and planting and mulching, but this side yard just resonates to me. I’m very invested in it, I loved it even in the winter when nothing particularly changes, but watching it wake up again is such a pleasure.

Signs of Spring

Everywhere I look there are little hopeful things popping up out of the ground.

Hostas in the left-foreground, tulips along the front edge of the path, more tulips along the back bed. (Also note the gravel pile – started at 3 tons, and here’s how much is left when the path is about 60% done. I’m trying to see how this will work and drawing a blank, we may have to come up with a solution to use up WAY more gravel. Other side yard? plus, um…?)


Daffodils and irises.

The transplanted roses have a few dead branches that I need to trim, but they’re also growing and leafing out! So exciting, I would have been so sad if these didn’t make it.

By the blue chairs, the hydrangea is starting to leaf out, and daffodils are up.

On the other side, daffodils, and to their left: crocosmia!

Two stands of tulips, a rose with red tips, two patches of crocosmia, and happy lavender. The barberries are just starting to show color again.

The lavender, sagex2, and thymex2 are all looking pretty dormant still, but many patches of two types of tulips are starting to pop up!!

In the front yard, I keep scanning for hostas and ferns, not much on that front so far, but the tulips are starting to appear!

I was worried about this japanese maple – I planted it late and it was so freezing cold in Nov and December, but there are buds everywhere. Maybe it made it?!?

View of the walk from the car to the house – we need shrubs and plantings but I’m so excited about the way the path is shaping up!


Back up to the end of the driveway, and you get the gravel pile in all its glory. Some day we’ll have just a lawn instead of endless piles from dump trucks!

One last thing – Bob gifted me all of his rhizomes from last year’s dahlias – too much to know what to do with, but a treat nonetheless.

Blue chairs, dramatically

It rained today. It’s been weeks if not months since our last real rainy day. Ah, Seattle summer. The rock wall looked so dramatic this morning, and the darker wet mulch was so striking in contrast with the plants and the fence. The plants looked greener and bigger than they usually do. Fun contrast. I’ve been so summer-focused, it’s fun to see what the fall will look like.