Skip to main content

Yard Work

The rain stops and starts.  At least there are times to get out and do some work in my little gardens.
Bleeding heart goes from zero to sixty in no time.

Crab apple tree in bloom

Bean poles, peppers, rhubarb

Lilacs
Miniature iris...so cute

C'mon sun, hit those tomato plants.

This snowball bush finally looks like it will do something
(besides get eaten by beetles).

I love these iris.



I am kind of a dilettante when it comes to gardening.  I so admire my neighbors who have grounds that are worthy of magazine spreads.  I look in wonder at the pictures posted on so many blogs--lush, colorful, welcoming "outdoor rooms." 

Since I have retired, I have doubled or more the amount of garden space I maintain, but I don't come close to having anything that would make it into a magazine (except maybe as a before shot).  I certainly don't have anything that would qualify as an outdoor room unless you want to count the deck with its bird feeders and couple of potted plants, a table with umbrella, and mesh chairs.  It's hardly an inviting space right now--being covered with a thick coating of yellow pollen.

Mike was amazed to see the pollen coating today because, "I just wiped that table last night and swept!"
Men are so cute the way they think that doing a household task once pretty much takes care of things.

Anyway, I don't think that I will take on any more garden spots beyond what I already take care of.  It is a lot of time and a lot of work.  Mike likes the flowers and fresh tomatoes, but he hates any kind of rounded corners.  See my small attempt near the snowball bush behind the shed?  He barely tolerates that...wants everything squared off.  When we planted a new crab apple tree, I wanted to put a large circular island around it.  When we put in the fence, I was thinking about a winding stone wall.  It wasn't worth watching him hyper ventilate every time the lawn needed mowing.

So I enjoy my little bits of gardens.  I'm off the pick a bouquet or two to bring in the house.  I love the springtime fragrances.


P.S.  I am having a hard time posting comments lately--getting an AOL "Whoops!" message.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Auntie sezzzzzz...May 24, 2011 at 4:50 PM

    A yard is a lot of work. Endless work. No matter if it is a fancy one, or a simple one.

    So sorry you have been hit with the Blogger-Comments issue! You aren't alone, but that's no help. So far, so good, with me. Hope it lasts.

    ~♥~

    ReplyDelete
  2. TaborMay 24, 2011 at 6:33 PM

    A small garden patch can keep you VERY busy. Do not grow like I have.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lisa @ Grandma's BriefsMay 24, 2011 at 10:07 PM

    Your yard is far more green and in bloom than mine! Things still at risk of freezing at night here in the Rocky Mountains. Maybe one day spring will have truly sprung and I'll get some blooms. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy looking at yours!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sally WesselyMay 24, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    I think your yard looks lovely. I'm like you. I don't want more than I can handle, but I do so admire the gardens of some bloggers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. BarbMay 25, 2011 at 2:34 AM

    What you need is no grass - then all corners could be rounded or even free-form. Are you getting pollen from the evergreens? We get massive yellow pollen from the lodgepoles but not until maybe July (after the snow melts).

    ReplyDelete
  6. JuneMay 25, 2011 at 5:39 AM

    Everything popped here, too. The lilacs, different kinds all planted together) are supposed to bloom at different times but they're all in bloom now. Makes for wonderful bouquets!
    You made me smile with your observation that men think that a household chore ought to stay done. Husband gets congratulations for every task. Me, slogging away at the laundry and the bedmaking, not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  7. JuneMay 25, 2011 at 5:39 AM

    Well...I see I messed up the parentheses up there.
    But you know what I meant. ;-p

    ReplyDelete
  8. marciamayoMay 25, 2011 at 6:16 AM

    I swear Olga, I can tell the seasons by your posts. What a full life you have.

    ReplyDelete
  9. HannahMay 25, 2011 at 11:38 AM

    I've never seen a mini iris before. Love your pictures, and your veggie plot looks lovely. Mine is always a tangled, yet productive eyesore.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Country GirlMay 26, 2011 at 6:51 AM

    Loving everything being so green! Your garden spots are lovely!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...
10 comments
Read more

New Furniture

 We went shopping for a new couch. I liked this one, the first store we went to. Of course it would be an impulse to buy the first one so we trekked around to other stores -- something we liked more, a better deal? No surprise that we ended up going back to that first store the next day and purchasing that couch for our living room. Also a matching love seat for the den where we watch TV. Because I had replaced my old love seat with two recliners. We couldn't keep three households worth of furniture after all. Well, my recliner was not big enough to accommodate both Levi and me. Poor boy had to watch TV from his bed on the floor. There! This is much better! Spoiled much? The little tail on the floor belongs to his toy squirrel, Buddy. It's like having a toddler with the need to be picking up toys or risk tripping over them. But his very favorite play thing is that bathmat that can be found anywhere but the bathroom floor.
10 comments
Read more

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...
10 comments
Read more