Before and After

It wasn't until I was looking through the pictures that I realized what a dramatic difference it made by painting the house last year. WOW!

BEFORE:


AFTER:

The City has recently removed all the Ash trees on my street. You can't tell by looking but there is a big tree stump just behind the Black Eyed Susan's that has been there since the last time the City removed trees. This time they allocated stump removal and asked if I wanted the stump removed from this area. At first I thought, no, I didn't want to dig all the plants out. But then decided that yeah I'd like the stump removed so I dug up as many plants as I could find and transplanted them. The City also said they would plant a tree in it's place! The stump has been removed and now I'm just waiting for the City to plant the tree then I'll put the plants back and cross my fingers that they will survive.

What's Happening in the Backyard

What's a backyard without a dog sticking his nose into everything. Jake wants to be everywhere that I am.



The Magnolia tree is in full bloom, absolutely beautiful! We had a pretty big storm this morning and I thought it might knock off all the flowers but they held on strong!




The Lilacs are budding nicely




The Sugar Maple is just starting to get it's leaves




The Peonies are way ahead of last year!


Rhubarb is also ahead of last year, I think we'll be eating it by the end of the month.


The Prickly Pear Cactus is coming in nicely, I'm hoping to get those great yellow flowers again this year!


The Tulips have a few more days I think before I'll see any flowers.




The Daffodils have been blooming for a few days now.


And what's a backyard without a baby? RJ was not happy that I sat him down with the flowers.

Note the yellow Mohawk RJ is sporting; I think he looks great with the yellow daffodils!

Lots of Work

I have lots of work ahead of me this year. I've expanded the garden to more than twice the size of last years space

I plan to have at least 5 possibly 6 raised beds. Initially I was going with 8' X 6' but now I've decided on 6' X 6' instead

These boards used to be a fence but now they're are on their way to becoming my new raised beds!

 

Spring Fling

I've officially called it Spring in Minnesota, I don't give a hoot about what the calendar says. When we get 75 degree temperatures in March and NO snow; it's Spring!

So last night Rhory and I had a Spring Fling party in the backyard. It was so much fun. Great friends, food and lots of laughter.

I have a feeling KV's backyard is going to see a lot of action this year!

I fenced off the entire veggie garden area so no dogs can get in there and eat all of the veggies this year. One of my dad's neighbors is going to come over and till up the garden area and in the mean time I'm going to build my raised beds. I'm also working on a design layout; very exciting.

I decided this year I'm taking orders from friends and family, if you want something grown in the backyard veggie garden you need to put in your order and agree to take the veggies when they are ready. Well, at least a share of the veggies. Last year I hated it every time I had to toss something into the trash because it was going bad.

As for the rest of the backyard; the tulips are up about 3 to 4 inches, the daffodils are almost ready to bloom. The Rhubarb it peaking out of the ground along with the Peonies and Irises. I'm very excited for my gardening adventures this year. I'm expanding more than double the size of last years veggie garden and adding a "cut" flower garden. I can hardly wait, fresh cut flowers in the house all summer long!

Spring Time!!!

Hmmm, let's see, what's happening in the backyard? This weekend I plan to begin constructing my raised beds. I should have about 750 square feet of space dedicated to vegetables and cut flowers. I've been checking out gardens all winter and discovered some great ones while on holiday in Seattle. I hope to replicate a few.

The tulips are up about 3-4 inches, the irises are up a couple inches and I'm seeing some action on a couple other plants. The Magnolia tree has lots of buds, it's going to be beautiful when the flowers come out. The Sugar maple and the River birch also have buds on them. We've had an exceptionally warm March so I'm hoping we don't get a freezing April. My sump pump has been going all month. I don't think the ground froze too deep this year. With the snow and ice we got in December before the really cold weather hit I think it insulated the ground enough to keep it from a deep freeze.

The front yard is going to need some attention tomorrow as the City has cut down all the Ash trees on my block and they're scheduled to remove the stumps next week. I have two stumps that will be taken out and I need to move some flowers and bushes near one of them. The City is then going to plant two Red Maples trees in their place. I'm happy that they're taking the stumps and planting trees, I was really bummed out when they cut down all the trees. I live in an old neighborhood and those trees were really nice big ones.

That's about it, I'm heading out to take pictures of the backyard in the morning.

What's up???

Not a lot to report on the garden as it's January in Minnesota. Everything is under a foot of snow and we are experiencing below zero temps. I am however checking out seed catalogs and figuring out what is going into the garden this Spring. I'm also taking orders from friends and family who don't have gardens but want the garden fresh veggies.

December in Minnesota

It's been a couple months since I've posted anything and the backyard is now under about 8 inches of snow. The ground is finally frozen and the sump pump stopped spewing water a couple weeks ago. Christmas is nearly upon us which means we enter the new year in less than two weeks. Whew, where did the year go?

Prior to the snow falling I broke down the garden, pulled up the mulch and ground cover. Moved the ground cover to other areas in order to kill off more grass over the winter months. I gathered all the leaves I could get and buried the garden area under about 6 inches of leaves. I'm hoping that it will kill off any remaining grass and by next Spring I should have almost 700 square feet of garden space.

Now it's time to start dreaming about next years garden. I'm stealing an idea from a friend and putting in cut flowers, the idea is that I plant the flower seeds each week so that I can cut one row each week and have fresh cut flowers everyday!

As for vegetables I'm taking orders. This year I had waaaaaaay too many tomatoes, lesson learned. I hope to try a few new veggies for example brussel sprouts, I'm not a big fan but I have a friend who loves them. I grew 'em about 10 years ago and if I remember correctly they were easy to grow so I'll put in a couple plants for her. I also have a hankering for pumpkins, I've never grown them but I think I want to. There's nothing better than homemade pumpkin pie. I also want to grow acorn squash, it's one of my favorites and I haven't grown them in a long time. I don't think I'll do cucumbers again, I put in a couple plants each year and they just haven't done well. I'm unsure about zucchini, a girl can only eat so much of the stuff and I have a freezer full right now.

The seed catalogs should start arriving in the next couple months so I start making my decisions then. I'm sure after spending hours looking through catalogs I'll have a head full of ideas.