As I was sitting out in the cool evening, watching the kids pick on each other, wine in hand…I remembered about a promise I made about our yard.

Our yard…a work in process, let me tell ya.  When we moved here, it was pretty much overgrown perrennials (day lillies, hostas, and bearded iris) and mulch.  Over 5 summers (we did nothing the first summer we were here – moved in July), we have tried to cultivate some gardening mojo into the neglected terrain.  There are definitely some blank spots that need fillin’…we are working on it.  By the time we retire it should be a little paradise! 😉

I’ll put up a few posts with pictures of the areas of the yard and what we have planted, for those interested.  Our front yard is definitely looking better since we moved in, and it has inspired some of our neighbors to plant…we think.  Not many of our close neighbors had any plantings before we moved in, so we are pretty sure the spectacular beautiousness of our blooming yard has inspired them that flowers aren’t so bad after all.  We are allowing the neighborhood bunnies to share the love all over the place!

I know everyone thinks we have these amazing green thumbs, but ’tis not always the case.  We have killed plenty of plants since we started landscaping around our little hut.  It’s not like we had any gardening experience, per se.  We grew up on farms so we know how to grow things, but some plants need a bit of extra care.  Just last summer Brian managed to kill 2 nine bark bushes since he put weed killer too close to it.  I’ve also planted shade plants in full sun and vice versa.  Or we have bought non-hardy perrenials and they die on us over the winter.  I’d say we have at least $1,000+ invested in dead stuff over the years.  Bushes and trees are expensive, so when we inadvertenly kill them, or when they get ravaged by deer and bunnies…we get a bit ticked about it.

Up first is the stone patio and hill garden.  This is my favorite area to photograph the kids, and the area that is the closest to being complete.

I took this last summer and Brian had a hard time figuring out where it was.

The stone patio was here originally, and had the evergreens, azalea bush and hostas in the back against the house.  We added the flowering plants (Herman’s pride, Columbine, Coral Bells), which have filled in the empty spaces rather nicely.  Unfortunately our pretty purple Columbine plant decided to expire on us…otherwise this area would have been the one and only DONE parts back here. 

The hilly area was supposed to be a perennial garden.  The seller’s had listed all the types of plants that were in this area and were supposed to be in the ground.  Uh…notsomuch.  We bought the house in late April, and when we moved in July, it was one huge patch of weeds.  I could go on and on about their upkeep of the house, so this was just our first indication that they were L-A-Z-Y.  It really looked awful. 

One Asian Lily poked her pretty head out of the weed patch and that was about it.  There was a wierd looking half dead evergreen bush/tree thing we took out and we have proceeded to add groundcover plantings and other perennials to fill in this area.  It also has my herbs here, the one thing that I make sure I plant every year.  We planted a bush here that should be about 4′ wide by now, but every year the bunnies have gnawed it down to stubs.  This winter they seem to have left it mostly alone, so hopefully it can grow a bit bigger this year. 

It has seemed to take 1-2 years for the perrenials to flourish once they are planted.  We have a few perennials that haven’t done great, but are still alive.  There are a few plants we put in half dead just crossing our fingers that they survive the neglect.  Amazingly, most have lived despite us.  See…you can have a black thumb and have a garden…just make sure they are drought tolerant!

In this hill garden, the perrennials we have are (Zone 3-4 Hardy):

• Russion sage (bees love it!  I thought it was dead when I put it in the ground, but it survived)
• Phlox (purple and white flowering)
• Grape hyasinth
• Dragonsblood Stonecrop (reddish color sedum groundcover)
• Sedum cauticola (gray colored sedum groundcover)
• Sedum ellacombeanum (Green sedum groundcover that has been transplanted from various spots that it seeded around the yard.  Free plants!)
• Hostas
• Mums
• Bearded iris (yellow and purple – transplanted from the front of the house and from underneath a pine tree)
• Asian lilies (yellow (the survivor!) and red)
• Oregano (aka overgrown bush)
• Thyme
• Sage (herb)
• Tarragon
• Chives
• Mint

Annuals we plant:

• Petunias
• Dahlia (low growing – we’ll see how it does on its first year)
• Basil
• Parsley
• Cilantro/coriander

Flowering schedule for patio and hill garden:

• Early May – Grape hyasinth, Phlox, Azalea bush
• Late May – Phlox, Bearded Iris
• June – Asian Lilly, Annuals, Columbine, Herman’s pride
• July – Hostas, Russian sage
• August – Dahlia, Oregano, Chives