Both Tim and I love working around the yard growing and caring for our plants. We added quite a few things this Summer. I thought a yearly yard update would be a neat way to chronicle the growth.
Spring 2010 we planted two tiny little apple trees, they sure have grown. One is a Honey Crisp and the other is a Golden Delicious cross of some sort...don't ask which is which...we don't know:)
With the help of Scott and Tina we added a garden. We grew some pretty good onions, tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, carrots and green beans. However the best thing that grew was the....
Zinnias!
We added a couple rows of ornamental grass. Would you believe we paid $2 a plant!
Here is the Old Fashioned Lilac we grew from a tiny off-shoot that Tim dug up from his parents old house in Council Bluffs. It is coming along!
We added a row of seven dogwoods in order to give our yard a little privacy and possibly (with many prayers) a wind break.
We dug up four off shoots of my mom's dogwoods at the farm (like the above crazy looking fellow!) and purchased three from Wal-Mart for $7 a piece.They have done very well. Ellie is looking forward to Dogwood blossoms....isn't there some country song.....
We also added a Miss Canada Lilac by the front of the house. It is supposed to have a white flower and flower all year long....we will see! We planted three Blue Fescue grasses below. This is a really windy spot, we hope they can take a beating!
By the front door we added three knockout rose bushes. Two were supposed to be pink and the middle one was supposed to be red....but they all look different. They have done well and grow considerably.
We planted Wiegelas on either side of the house in Spring 2010, they did little last year except survive. This Summer they grew like crazy! It is hard to believe they are the same plant!
This Spring we also added a Burning Bush to the back corner of the house to replace a plant that didn't make it. I am excited to see the leaves turn this Fall.
For Mother's Day, Tim and the girls added this flower bed for me. Once upon a time, when Tim was looking for jobs after graduate school I told him I would move anywhere with him as long as I could have peonies and lilacs in the yard. He took a job at Arizona State...a prickly pear is not a peony and palm trees are not lilacs. However, this story does have a happy ending....he was able to land a job at Iowa State and now I have plenty of peonies and lilacs. :)
Tim and I dug up the peonies (which you can't see because I already cut them off..they are in the spaces between the smaller plants) out of my mom's garden and I purchased many of the perennials at the end of the season (around the 4th of July) for next to nothing.
A close up of the Lilac bush in the flower bed above, it should have smaller pinkish-purple flowers.
Butterfly Bushes...they are in their third year.
My perennial flower bed along the garage, just finishing up it's second growing season.
Perhaps the most exciting addition to the yard (no, not the playset!) was three Maple trees.
We added a Green Mountain Sugar Maple in the backyard by the playset.
On the other side of the back yard is an Autumn Blaze Maple.
By the front door we added an Amur Maple. It is only supposed to get 15-20 feet tall, perfect for the tight space between houses.
We still have more to do...there is talk of a couple more flower beds, an oak tree and edging the flower beds. We will see what next Summer brings!
Oh and a few weeks ago I posted a picture of the front yard and said I didn't think it could get any worse...well it hasn't! Look at it now! Woo hoo!
Hope you enjoyed our little yard tour:) Grow on!
You can come work in our yard!! And yes, our brown yard is better now too!!! It was really bad for awhile!
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