Front garden in pictures

More pictures of stuff growing well.

This is a LONG row of sunflowers, some are titans they can get up to 14' tall. Of course not in our wind they won't but still this will be cool when they bloom... the wall of sunflowers!

Apples!!

Pole beans and sunflowers.

Progress in Pictures

These are the pictures from the ground, maybe if it's nice out this weekend we'll get up on the roof and snap some pictures from up there.

The labyrinth spiral garden: 

A big update about everything...

So sorry for the delay in postings, but it is May after all.  On Tuesday I got 28 tomato plants in the ground. We've decided to try the twine method for supporting the tomatoes as they grow. I discovered supporting the tomatoes this way in The Vegetable Gardeners Bible which is my go to book for just about everything. We are still having cold nights here, but only into the the high 30's low 40's which is doable for tomatoes if they are covered. I have 5 tomato plants left over that will end up in the front yard spiral garden supported by cages.

The spiral garden is coming along nicely. We got all the plants divided and put into the ground and sweet peas started for the teepee. I plan to plant beans on the A frame trellis and possibly a squash or two. It needs to be mulched badly and that will happen sometime this weekend... in between rain storms. Memorial day weekend in the PNW is ALWAYS rainy.

All the plants look so small right now. It's rather cute! I don't have the walk way done yet because I am going to need a ton of woolly thyme, I bought two plants but that's a lot of walk way to cover.

We have a chicken who isn't laying, she hasn't been for about a month now. I am going to spend some time outside checking for an outdoor nest, some chickens will just decide to lay outside. So I've gotta check that out, oh and maybe deworm them and get some DE into the coop shavings. I don't think our bee's are enjoying the wet weather considering all flights are grounded. I want to get in and do another hive check but that must wait until it is warmer which will be likely sometime early next week.

Mom and I are prepping for a garage sale too! That should take place the weekend of the 11th. Provided we actually get nice weather? I am going to sell off some major furniture and all the chemical cleaners in the household. It truly is amazing what I found under the cupboards. Jake and I need to spend some time organizing the garage for the sale, moving stuff that we don't want out there to the basement or out back. I need to get his triathlon gear up for sale too! Man the list just goes on and on....

Spiral Garden phase one: Demolition

I apologize for the fuzziness of these pictures, I was unable to take the picture though the window because of the glare so I had to take it through the screen. This is our front yard, weed infested, half dead grass with a small flower bed in the middle. It has to go! We hardly water our grass at all and have become the ghetto grass owners of the neighborhood. Not that I care but I know they do, since I don't eat grass or take any pleasure in mowing it, we decided to remove it.

All I have for you at this point is the demolition stage, the before pictures and a video that Jacob shot of the grass removal part. We did rent a sod cutter which makes life so much easier. Then we loaded our trailer and the neighbors truck and took it down to the yard waste facility. The plan is to create a spiral/labyrinth like garden with a small 'thyme' pathway and big perennial flower beds. Should be fun!

Monarch Way station update 2

This is what happens when sun and water get a hold of of a perennial garden.



For those of you who are new to this blog (I picked up some followers through Cold Antler Farm, I changed this section of my grass lawn to a flower garden in August of 2008. This will be it's first full year in growth.... and grown it has. All of the pictures can be clicked on to make them larger. To WILD gardening!

Earlier this year I posted about this garden here.

For the planting and extreme baby pictures of the butterfly garden those are here.

Monarch Way station update

Last August I planted our Butterfly/Bee Garden in the front yard. All of the plants I got on discount because it was the end of flower season and they were looking pretty sad. I have added some plants to the list in that post. Namely milkweed, another lavender, a tiny start of a blue fescue grass, more creeping thyme for the walkway, and several random types of sedum.

Here's the updated pictures. It still looks pretty bare, but I plan to remedy that this year. I also want to expand the borders around my garden, which are currently harboring bark and a drip line tube, but nothing living.

Butterfly/Bees Garden to Please

Well I finally got around to planting that Monarch Way Station. However it kinda turned into a bee garden in the process. I am missing one crucial element to the Way Station and that is milk weed, lots of butterfly larvae like milk weed and I don't have any yet. But none the less it is mostly planted.

This is after the 1st rototilling and basic grass removal. There are still some clumps of grass but it is generally smooth. I have added 1 cubic yard of compost from our recycle center to give the soil a boost.


The smoothed in compost and 2nd rototilling now this baby is ready for planting.


Now here is all the plants in the wheel barrow ready to get in the ground. It doesn't look like much but I do have a butterfly bush that will get much bigger than the 1 gallon pot it is in now, I like to buy things at the end of the season on sale and really needing some better soil and some love. I have nursed most plants back to glorious health that way.




Now those are the plants in the pots, but I also transplanted 2 moss's and 1 russian sage. I have to move my 2nd russian sage but I am afraid like the first one it will get witthery and die. I was un-aware that russian sage's roots are very woody and extremely thick! Much like a small bush's would be. I am not sure what to do about the other one... regardless the sage is looking sagy and overall not happy with life right now. I am hoping all it's efforts are going to its roots, and I will HEAVILY mulch it this winter as to protect it, hopefully with that it will come back. If not it's off to the nursery I will go.



Here is the plants list:

2 Lavender -Lavandula 'Munstead'
1 'Bicolor' Butterfly Bush- Buddleia
3 Gaura 'Pink Cloud' - Gaura Lindheimeri ( a weedy like plant with pink flowers... wild flower like)
1 Purple Sage - Salvia
2 Heliopsis 'Sommersonne'
2 Salvia 'Schneehugel' Snow Hill
2 Garden Aster 1 "puff" and 1 "hazy" in color
1 Gallardia 'Tokajer'
1 Liatris 'Floristan White'
1 Joe-pye Weed - Eupatorium 'Chocolate'
1 Pincushion Flower - Scabiosa columbaria 'Pink Mist'
1 Purple Coneflower 'Echinacea'
1 White Coneflower 'Echinacea'

To be added:

30 *ish Tulips
15+ Crocus's
2 Milkweeds
1-2 russian sage (if it doesn't survive)
pathway from driveway to gate we are thinking of doing moss to have a living walkway, plus the bees like the little flowers on the moss's so thats a bonus.

Beginning the Monarch Way Station

Today, since it is nice out I am going to plan and measure for the monarch way station. I believe part of our front yard will work wonders for this idea. For more information about starting a Monarch Way Station click here.

First on my to do list is kill all the grass in the area I want to plant. Which shouldn't be a problem, I plan to put down cardboard and soil amenities like compost, newspaper, coffee grounds, and manure. Our top two feet of soil is mostly rock, since not much thrives on rock I have to soil build. 

I am going to get most of my "wildflower" plants from Wildflower Farm.They graciously separate the flowers by state, so you can purchase native plants.