Mid West or Massachusetts

Spent some time at a local farm this morning picking apples. The trees were bursting with ripe fruit and as I looked across the farm I couldn't help but think of the mid west and how beautiful that area is. The farm also added a new addition this year, which was great to see, a coop with a flock of about a dozen hens

A busy Holiday weekend in the yard

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, I know I did. I was able to take an extra few days off and spend some time with the family as well as make some great progress on my backyard project

 

a random surprise, I didn't plant this here, beside my walkway, but somehow a corn stock grew and is producing a couple of cobs of corn, considering I don't have corn growing anywhere on my property, I found this to be quite the surprise

The yard of my dreams a work in progress

So I have been making some progress on the yard work, hoping to get a lot done over the long holiday weekend

The Yard of my Dreams

So here it is, the yard of my dreams. Can you believe I have never had any artistic training, oh yes, it's true. But seriously, bad art work aside, this is what I am thinking about doing to my yard. The tan lines would be stone, the black circle is a fire pit, the tree is, well, a tree, and the green stripes are some zebra grass.The patio will all be filled in with the pavers you see and I will fill the spaces in with stone...This is just a "rough draft" I could still change...especially if anyone wants to chime in with some great ideas!

Its always nice when you can recycle

After fixing up my deck I had a pile of old decking...I also had a small shed that I use to keep the kids bulky toys in sitting on the ground. I bought just a few pressure treated 2X4's to make the frame and then covered it all with the old decking. The shed now sits level, off the ground, and the doors don't stick anymore, which I great. I was also able to reduce what was a pretty good sized pile of old decking down to a much smaller pile!

It's been a while

Well, it's been a while since I updated the blog or since I've been able to get out into the backyard. Work has been hectic so it's been taking a toll on my weekends, but I'm hoping things will quiet down soon, at least for a little while!

So what's been going on....My zebra grass has bounced back from it's near death experience so I am definitely happy about that.  We have had a considerable amount of heat and not much rain this year so the lawn is pretty much all dead, the lawn, if you did not know, is my nemesis! I have been battling it for years and every year the lawn wins....At this point I am pretty close to throwing in the towel, I just can't stand the thought of running my well everyday just to water the grass, it just seems like such a waste. I've been trying to think of creative ways to get rid of as much of it as possible, but so far I haven't thought of anything good so I'll just keep trying.

Other quick tidbits
1-The kids garden keeps going and going despite neglect
2-I like the soaker hose I put into the vegetable garden, but the raised beds made it very tough to weed
3-And ground bees have taken over my weed patch, I mean my lawn. The bees are everywhere, and have been trying to get rid of them in an attempt to stay environmentally friendly we were going out nightly and pouring boiling hot water down their holes...days of that got rid of some of them, but not all. Last night we caved in and pour liquid ammonia down the holes so we'll have to see what results that brings

Deck Update

So the deck part of this project is all done and it wasn't too bad of a project. I pulled all of the railings off and only replaced them on the left hand side. Then I created a step down around the front and right. You'll see some pavers laying around that area which leads me to my next project. I will be removing the grass and the deck will eventually step down onto a patio, but I'm going to wait until the weather cools off a little before I get going on that one! That much digging, and in the heat, is just no fun so it can wait until we get closer to the fall weather and the cooler temps that come with it.

Blooms around the garden

I never thought I would see a gang in my backyard

I was just minding my own business, making some breakfast when I spotted them...their was a GANG in my backyard!!!  OK, OK, so it was a gang of turkeys...I was still surprised

Hope my hens don't get into a gang fight!

I've heard of the Tortoise and the Hare, but never the Turkey and the Hare...I wonder who will win this race

Happy 4th

Hope everyone is enjoying their Holiday, we watched our fireworks last night and spent the day working on the deck. I am definitely making some great progress.

My potted plants are scattered across the ground. Last year I overwintered one of my pepper plants (in the purple pot) as an experiment. If you look closely you will see some bright red peppers, and I have already picked a few this year. So this winter I will definitely take a few more inside

Below, just an update on the kids garden, it's a bit on the wild side, but they are getting some nice blooms

A Little Summer Project

OK, so I'm not sure how I got into this one, but some how these things just happen! It only took one weekend to pull this apart....now lets see how long it takes to go back together!

The girls