A Harbinger of Spring

I just saw a male American Robin grooming himself in the cedar tree outside my kitchen window.



The daffodils have blossomed in the planters, and my iris are beginning to peek out of the vinca. I found out from my garden web site that you can mow vinca down in the fall, and it will come back in the spring with a lot of new blossoms. I think this year I should do that since mine hardly blooms at all anymore and it is getting a bit unruly. It's still to early to plant though, last night it was 29F.

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish...

The Ortega’s finally came back, and hauled off the last of the rocks from the spa they busted out in October. I’ve been living with those eyesores in our dog run since BEFORE Halloween. After the snow hit I was concerned that the dogs might jump the fence because the rocks under the snow made the snow bank a lot higher that it would have normally been. We called them several times about coming back over to finish the job, but got no response, so we thought they were going to stiff us. We were really shocked at their behavior because we have hired them for several jobs before, and they always showed up on time, and did the job efficiently.

We ran into a slight disagreement over two of the pieces, which were large concrete footings, they tried to tell me that they weren’t part of the job (ha!), and that they shouldn’t have to haul them off, that and they were too heavy for them to lift. They were part of the job because they were within the rock they were busting out. As a solution we could both live with I asked them to bury them over where we stack the wood, so now they are out of sight, and won’t be in the way of any future planting projects, or the new location of our patio set.

It just goes to prove that you shouldn't pay somebody before the work gets done. They bid the job very reasonably, so when we agreed on the amount (under $150) we expected to have the work done in a week. We even felt sorry for them because they had to make so many runs to the dump that we gave them an extra $70. I later found out that they just pocketed the money, and dumped the rocks in the river bed!

A light dusting...

Today we got a light dusting of snow hardly enough to mention. I noticed that the leaves on the maple tree are starting to bud and the plum tree in the front yard is beginning to get a few pink blossoms.

What garden?

Another Spring is on the horizon and the yard has seen very little progress since 2002. We've been concentrating our efforts on the house for the past few years and as anyone can tell you it's very expensive. But I have made myself a promise that this year I will do something, even if it's something small. As you can see the backyard is nothing to talk about right now. We purchased the porch swing and the picnic set at the same time, but they both suffered casualties this year. I was unprepared for the freak snow storms that hit us and I didn't have time to take the cushions, umbrealla, and awning in. As a result the snow collapsed the umbella and the wind caused a large branch from the pine tree to fall onto the swing awning, and it riped a huge hole in it. I hope to replace them some day. You can also see that river rock eyesore that was the heating source for the Jacuzzi tub that used to be on the deck. The way it worked was you built a fire inside it on top of the pipes, and that would heat the water.

I planted four Blue Nikko Hydrangea bushes in the planter area where the swing is, one near the rock firebox, and one over by the stairs near the hose holder. The one by the hose isn't doing so well, and neither is the one that gets sun all day; it's on the other side of the pine tree, but the two that are in the shade by that rock thing are thriving.

Heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple' also called fairy bells, are planted near the swing and around the pine tree. They seem to have survived several seasons. I planted them back in 2004. It doesn't spread though like the Dead Nettle does. It's a very pretty, and delicate plant that gets tiny pink bells on the tips of its stems.

Spotted Dead Nettle "White Nancy". I started the Dead Nettle in the area across from the swing. That used to be where the concrete mess from the spa was, and to make the best of it I made a planting area all around the thing, but when we had the concrete broken out, and hauled off they buried the plants under the dirt they were shoveling, and I don't know if they will come back. I transplanted some of it over by the swing area, and it seemes to be thriving there.

Since the last time I took photos in 2002 we had a chain link fence installed, and made a dog run for the puppies that way I can still landscape the backyard, and they can have a place to romp, and take care of business. These photos were taken around noon as you can see we don't get much sun on this side of the yard, so I have to be careful what I plant.

This is where we store the firewood. We started stacking a cord of wood this morning. We usually burn through a cord every six weeks sometimes more depending on how cold it is outside. There is enough room there to stack almost three cords of wood.That is another silver maple in the forefront of the picture. I will might cut that down this year there's enough shade back there. I need some sun.
This is the other side yard, and right now our patio furniture is temporarily set up there. I'd like to move it to another part of the yard because it's not very private there, and the neighbors can see and hear everything we do. As you can see there are a ton of pine needles from the last windstorm. It will probably take about 10 bags to rake up the backyard. The path to the right of the set is an elevated path that leads to the side gate and up to the stone steps. Like most things on this property it was started by a previous owner, and never completed. I had tried planting something between the pic-nic set and the path, but it didn't take.This is the view directly across from the patio set, and it gets some afternoon sun. I have planted some dwarf hydrangea bushes there, but only the one in the shade seems to be thriving. I have plans to make that rock wall more permanent or to use the same kind of bricks that I used to make the steps. That area used to be under the stairs to the deck, and was filled with all kinds of debris. Whoever built the deck just threw all the rocks there willy nilly. I've haven't gotten around to do anything with it yet.This is the other shed we had built, and as you can see we have some junk piled up near it. The stuff on the left side is all of my garden gnomes, and stuff that I put out every year in the spring. Under the cypress tree on the left wild blackberry bushes keep popping up. I'd like to train them against the fence, but they are too far away from it. Anybody have any info on how to move one?This is the stone walkway, and retaining wall that leads up to the front of the house. I'd like to continue this into the backyard. It's a mess right now because it's futile to clean up the yard until after the rainy/snow season ends. As soon as the daffodils come up then I know it's safe to clean up the yard. Removing all the pine needles now isn't a smart idea either because they work like mulch, and keep the plants protected. Sometimes I let the planters go for a year because the needles make really rich soil as they decompose.

On the left is the planter filled with vinca major, and to the right is the area where the two Adirondak chairs were in previous pictures. I have planted a hedge of Indian Hawthorne there. It seems to be doing well, and even had some flowers on it last year. They get plenty of water because of the run off from the roof, and they are in the sun most of the morning and afternoon. I planted a row up by the picket fence, but I don't think they'll survive the snow plow this year. I've planted some vinca up by the street as well, and thought I could put some bulbs in there. I like tulips and peonies. I think a row of peonies should do well along the picket fence. If the vinca fills in, and takes off the flowers should accent one another. I'm trying to work with what survives up here, and evidently peonies are hardy in cold weather.
The Black Locust bush, silver maple, and the hydrangea have grown. In fact I need to trim all the suckers off of the maple. It's jsut so tempting to let them fill in, and hide the neighbors' house. In the fall our yard looks very much like this. We don't get the reds here that they have on the east coast because the trees that turn that color are not native to California or we don't get the proper light, and temperature to make our trees turn that color. Ever wonder why leaves change color? Someday I'm going to make it to New England to watch the leaves turn color. The tree's have almost blocked out the view of the neighbors house, which is this hideous color. Yuck! In the summer they also provide privacy, and a nice view from my kitchen window

This is the view of the dog run from the front yard. In the summer there is a vine with green, heart-shaped leaves that uses the fence like a trellis, and covers the entire thing. I don't know what it is, but it must be some kind of weed because it pops up all over the yard.

This is the view of the back of our house. I had a wreath over the door, but I had to take it down to have the house painted, and I never put it back up. I'm trying to find a low shrub that will cover the concrete foundation. I was hoping that the hydrangeas would take off, but so far I haven't had any luck with the one I planted just left of the door. If I could get one to grow then I would plant one on either side. If they don't work maybe the Indian Hawthorne will. That area doesn't get much sun.
This is the view from the back steps of our house. In the summer this field fills up with beautiful lush ferns, and the trees fill in as well. The birds love it out there, and I get all kinds of wild birds coming in for treats from my bird feeders, and a drink from my waterfall. I don't think anyone will buy the lots because they are impossible to build on, and when it rains a river runs through the gulch.

In the summer the oak trees and shrubs fill in and completely block this unattractive view of the neighbors house.
This isn't one of the most attractive views of our yard. As you can see there's that horrible rock "fireplace". If it were more accessible we might be able to use it as a fireplace to sit around when the nights get chilly, but the door faces the shed, and so it's totally useless, and there is no way we could break that thing up so it's here to stay.
This is just another view of the dog run. When we cut down the black locust tree that was in there it sent out suckers all along our fence line, and as long as I keep them trimmed down to four feet, and under it makes a beautiful green hedge in the summer, and a wall of golden leaves in the fall. The only downside is that since it is a deciduous tree the horrible view of the neighbors unkempt yard and house comes back in the wintertime.

What A Transformation!

When we bought the house back in October of 2000 it looked like this half hidden behind an overgrown yard and painted a dark brown color that literally made it fade into the background.





After some serious trimming of trees and clearing of overgrown shrubs (they were a fire hazard anyway),and a lot of hard work by me busting out that driveway over the summer, the house looked like this.this.

And now it looks like this.
There was only one thing missing and that came next.

The finishing touch was the picket fence. The process took about a month to complete and it was worth every penny.

Now I just have to work on the landscaping.

A Stairway To Heaven

This is my second attempt at steps and I think I did much better this time. I found these wonderful bricks at Home Depot. They can be used for small retaining walls and weigh about 5 lbs a piece. I like the way the seemlessly blend in with the soil, and they are really good at holding it back and staying in place.

It's Getting There...

We have almost finished at this point. The house, the shed and the carport were finished but we still needed more room to store our stuff; the lumber in the yard is from the original shed I wanted built. I wanted it built across the front of the yard thinking it might give us some privacy in the front of of the house The shed was going to be 10x20, but as they put the sides up I realized that it looked horrible so we had the brothers unassemble it and use the wood to build the two new sheds. They were the nicest peopl to work with and they were very professional with reasonable rates. They didn't even charge us to take the original shed down!

Now that the shed and the house are painted the same it's not looking so bad. We bought a patio set and you can barely see it in the side yard. We also added shutters to two of the windows and coordinating flower boxes to the shed.

It's all starting to come together...

You can see in the backyard that the other shed is now completed and painted to match the rest of the house. I removed all the iris’ from in front of the Adirondack chairs and planted some hedges behind them; they are still thriving. After all of the commotion during painting all my Johnny-Jump-Ups died and did not come back again. The Virginia creeper is growing back on the trellis although it had to be severely cut back so they could paint the house. It’s slowly beginning to recover. The vinca has almost completely covered the unsightly and useless propane tank. Another project on the horizon will be to move the hose bib to the side of the house, right now it’s behind the trellis and is a bear to get at.

My Green Thumb

As you can see spring is turning into summer and with the heat the plants go crazy, what was once a barren wasteland is now beginning to fill in with greenery. The large bush in the background is the black locust that I need to cut back every year. The shrub in front of that is the hydrangea which gets a lacy cream-colored flower on it all through summer, and as you can see the vinca that I planted is taking root. I planted some things on the other side of the stairs; some are holding on and others didn't make it so I have this hodgepodge of plants going on over there. I've got to make a decision on whether or not to pull them up and start over again or just leave them be and see what happens.

You're going to paint it what color?!?

Here you can see the shed trim getting a coat of primer. We really freaked some people on the street out because they thought that this was going to be the color of the house. I also planted a row of Hawthorne shrubs at the top of the street.

The Box in the Front Yard

At this point the shed looks like a hideous box in the front yard and I was beginning to have serious doubts about why I agreed to put it there in the first place. But it serves a purpose, you can see how the shed effectively hides the neighbors house, which now has a two story room addition off the back and is painted pumpkin yellow, which is a sight more uglier than my boxy shed. The previous owners sold the house to some people, who let’s say have unusual color tastes. I think they were trying to go for the color of pine wood and ended up looking like a yellow orange crayon instead.

Shades of Gray

This is what the house looked like after it was primed. Notice we took off the railing that went across the top window in the front of the house. We also removed all of the alpine-like shelves under the windowsills. They were rotting anyway and they didn’t fit with the new look I was going for.

Sanford and Son meets the Beverly Hillbilies

This is what was hidden behind that wooden section of fence you see from the front yard. I know it’s a mess. There’s the cheap tin shed, our gardening tools, the trash cans, branches from a tree we pruned ourselves, a piece of plywood we have nailed to the side of the house to cover up the previous owners doggie door, (if a dog can get out a raccoon can get in!), and last but not least the worst “no, no” of all… firewood stacked on the deck up against the house. All of this stuff has since been removed and it is now the site of a very nice dog run. The plywood has been removed from the side of the house and is now been properly mended and painted, and there's no more litter in the yard just two dog houses. By the way, the dark brown section of wood planking, in the upper right hand corner, is our neighbor’s idea of a good fence.

A $3000 Lesson

The guys who built the shed did such a good job we asked them to build us a carport as well. We were so excited to have something to keep the pinecones, sap and other debris from hitting our cars. We had it painted the same color as the house and shed so it matched and I put a beautiful green wreath on the front of it with some classy numbers. It really added to the property and it was functional. We had it for two years and when they resurfaced the street the county cited us for not having a permit and it being 3 ft on the easement, and they made us take it down. If it would have been even with the trunk of the pine tree they probably wouldn't have bothered us at all. It made us so mad! It’s not like we live in the city. We live in a very rural area in the middle of a national forest we will probably never have sidewalks. It was an expensive $3000 lesson.

Keeping Up With The Neighbors

At this point I'm ashamed to say that our yard didn't look any better than the next door neighbors, but ours was temporary, not so for next door. This is what the side yard looked like right after we had the chain link put up. We didn’t have any proper wood stackers, which we have since remedied, and so we piled the wood along the fence. Since then we added another section of fence (about where the blue tarp is)and a gate to make a rectangular dog run. We set aside ten feet in the back corner to stack our wood in.

An Unsightly View...

This is a view of the front yard on the left side. There is the piece of log that was never removed. What an eyesore! The tree is another Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). This area is a gentle slope of about 3 to 3 ½ feet. I am considering planting some evergreen trees or shrubs there to hide the nasty view. The house next door is a rental and the landlord (slumlord actually) never does any repairs or maintenance on the place. How do you like the blue and green tarp covered leanto?

Some people are like slinkies...

Not really good for anything, but you still can't help but smile when you see one stumble down the stairs. (Unknown)

And believe me we did our share of stumbling last winter so that is why I made this first attempt at making easy to walk down stairs. This also is a view of the parking pad and retaining wall. As you can see when we had the parking pad made it pretty much denuded the area of any plant life, except a wild hydrangea bush and a couple of irises. In front of the car you can see what remains of the stump from the oak tree that was felled and left in the yard by a previous owner. The river rocks were brought in by the people we bought the house from. At the top of the stairs you can still see a portion of what used to be the driveway.

A Path That Leads to Nowhere...

This is a view of the lower yard near the front door. It was mostly covered by asphalt when we moved in. I had to place a berm where the rocks are to keep the rainwater from washing away the yard. Just below the propane tank the dirt poured out onto a lovely set of steps and a pathway made out of rocks that led to the backyard. There was another large tree in the corner just opposite or the propane tank that one of the previous owners had cut down to a stump. The ground, shown in the lower right hand corner, is about 3 feet higher than the pathway and is held in place by a rock wall. The other side of the path is bordered by another, lower, rock wall and there is vinca planted all over there; it’s also where the maple and evergreen trees are planted.

A slippery slope

This is the view from the front door looking up the yard to street level. It is an even slope, and used to be filled with native ferns before we had to have the septic system replaced after that the yard never looked the same. They had a lot of excess dirt and when they tried to place it evenly around it killed all the plants. The ferns are making a slow comeback but it will take years for them to fill back in if ever.

A Closer Look...

This is a close up of the same side. You have a closer look at both of the biscuits (a section of log), and you can see one of the evergreen trees that were there before we moved in. Unfortunately, it was later destroyed when we put in the chain link fence; however, this is the very sort of tree I am considering replanting in the same area. I have to be careful what I choose because the power line partially runs over this area.