So, it’s been awhile since I did a backyard post. However, I’ve been working really hard in the garden and it’s starting to show. However, the yard as a whole still leaves a lot to be desired.
What will someday be our front entryway. I don’t even know what that pipe is for. 🤔 The recycle bins need to move elsewhere. The kids need to clean up all the nature crap they’re constantly dumping EVERYWHERE! The Mac but tree isn’t rooting well, I may dig it up or something??? And I need to stain the bench. The petunias are looking nice though, and so are the palms. The gardenias are finally over their thrip and scale infestations, but aren’t really thriving.
Vinca- low maintenance and they add nice color, but not my fave. The purple stuff-ugh. The African Iris- also not my favorite, it just came with the house. Remember what it looked like before though?!? This is a really pretty sunset plumeria, but it’s growing all twisty and dumb. I also have a geranium, a new dawn rose, and a pretty dark magenta mini rose stuck in there for now.
The garden area is SO much improved from this time last year! But it’s been countless hours, $, and tears from deer damage to get here. And now we’re outgrowing it, so thinking of tearing these beds out and replacing them with 4 brick ones...eventually...
The shed. Still ugly AF. Better than it was 4 years ago though.
The lime tree had to get fenced after the deer almost killed it.
Same story but worse with the lemon.
This overgrown mess of ginger and lobster claw heleconia...
This bed gained some ranunculus, peonies, and a few misc wildflower seeds. The glads are still remaining. I had to net it after the deer at my first 5 or 6 attempts at it this year. 😑
Half of me likes this, half of me wants to rip it all out and replant it with white hydrangeas. Lol. Good news is I reported a bunch of pineapples and most are doing better.
The site of Bubba’s future home- aka- my someday fishpond area.
The strawberry bed. I’m happy with it. But I’m incredibly angry that a baby deer lifted up my shitty netting job and ate almost all the sequoia variety. And I’m glad I did it, but now if we’re going to make new beds I’ll probably redo it to match and do a much better job of removing all the weeds and amending the soil rather than rushing to plant! Beds next to the panax, NW has anemone and a lavender lassie rose. SW has a ivory mini rose, Jilly Jewel spray rose, freesia, generic pink fragrant mini rose, and the red mini rose I got for Valentine’s Day 3 years ago- which is actually thriving. All the others sustained pretty heavy deer damage this year. The ivory one and the jilly jewel are not recovering well. Taking this picture made me realize how dumb that railrod tie is.
The back- still ugly. Still a good source of lei making materials.
Two arrangements from my first attempt at a cut flower garden. Let’s just say I learned a lot of how NOT to make a cut flower garden...
Planted this month:
Ice Box Watermelons
Beets
Multi colored carrots
A gardenia I rooted
Peony bulbs
Freesia bulbs
Anemone bulbs
Harvesting this month:
Brussel sprouts
Cabbage
Lettuce is ending
Some carrots
A few limes
Strawberrry guava
Flowering this month:
Queen Anne’s lace
Molokai sweet potatoes
One lily
African irises or whatever they are
Dianthus
Zinnias
Cosmos
Jasmine- at the end of the month
Vinca and hibiscus as always
Verbena? Viburnum?
Petunias
Some red ginger
My one surviving white marigold
Stock was early in the month
Happenings this month:
I finally talked Daniel into hiring Dean to cut all of our panax to 6 feet. BUT, they’re super busy, so it won’t be happening for 6-8 weeks...
I finally talked Daniel into setting up the pool that Pierre and JaeWon gave us. YAY!
I finally talked Daniel into repurposing the kid (goat) house into a kid (human) house. 😂
I finally talked Daniel into buying me a pallet of bricks from Ace 😂
I worked out a nice PowerPoint slide of what I’d like the layout of the yard to be.
I set up the front patio to mimic what it will look like when it’s actually square, not the stupid uneven triangle/ parallelogram shape that it is now. Fun fact- I recently learned from Dr. Google that it is currently in the shape of a quadrilateral.
The plumeria are finally leafing out again after a huge bout of rust and then the GD deer eating them all.
The front....the trench filled in nicely, I took down the ugly red umbrella and am going to paint it navy-don’t tell Daniel. My new dawn rose is turning yellow, so it got some fungicide, hopefully it makes it. And obviously I need to figure out this patio table and chairs situation.
What will someday be our front entryway. I don’t even know what that pipe is for. 🤔 The recycle bins need to move elsewhere. The kids need to clean up all the nature crap they’re constantly dumping EVERYWHERE! The Mac but tree isn’t rooting well, I may dig it up or something??? And I need to stain the bench. The petunias are looking nice though, and so are the palms. The gardenias are finally over their thrip and scale infestations, but aren’t really thriving.
Vinca- low maintenance and they add nice color, but not my fave. The purple stuff-ugh. The African Iris- also not my favorite, it just came with the house. Remember what it looked like before though?!? This is a really pretty sunset plumeria, but it’s growing all twisty and dumb. I also have a geranium, a new dawn rose, and a pretty dark magenta mini rose stuck in there for now.
The garden area is SO much improved from this time last year! But it’s been countless hours, $, and tears from deer damage to get here. And now we’re outgrowing it, so thinking of tearing these beds out and replacing them with 4 brick ones...eventually...
The shed. Still ugly AF. Better than it was 4 years ago though.
The lime tree had to get fenced after the deer almost killed it.
Same story but worse with the lemon.
This overgrown mess of ginger and lobster claw heleconia...
This bed gained some ranunculus, peonies, and a few misc wildflower seeds. The glads are still remaining. I had to net it after the deer at my first 5 or 6 attempts at it this year. 😑
Half of me likes this, half of me wants to rip it all out and replant it with white hydrangeas. Lol. Good news is I reported a bunch of pineapples and most are doing better.
The site of Bubba’s future home- aka- my someday fishpond area.
The strawberry bed. I’m happy with it. But I’m incredibly angry that a baby deer lifted up my shitty netting job and ate almost all the sequoia variety. And I’m glad I did it, but now if we’re going to make new beds I’ll probably redo it to match and do a much better job of removing all the weeds and amending the soil rather than rushing to plant! Beds next to the panax, NW has anemone and a lavender lassie rose. SW has a ivory mini rose, Jilly Jewel spray rose, freesia, generic pink fragrant mini rose, and the red mini rose I got for Valentine’s Day 3 years ago- which is actually thriving. All the others sustained pretty heavy deer damage this year. The ivory one and the jilly jewel are not recovering well. Taking this picture made me realize how dumb that railrod tie is.
The back- still ugly. Still a good source of lei making materials.
Two arrangements from my first attempt at a cut flower garden. Let’s just say I learned a lot of how NOT to make a cut flower garden...