Happy Spring!

Yes, I've been neglecting the blog. Fear not, Spring is here and we're busy at work in the garden again. We hit the BBG Plant Sale two weeks ago. Luckily, I got everything I wanted, except a funky hosta. Nothing new to be had. I did get yet another hellebore for under the dogwood, a neat fern, an oak leaf hydrangea, some annuals, and Tim got a Spanish broom which has a cool spare structure to it. It also needs full sun, which is in short suppply around here. I'll post pics once we've settled everyone in their place. The pics below are from last summer when Tim sodded the back lawn and put a sprinkler system in. He's handy to have around for things like that.

Here, the soil has been all tossed and fluffed.

Now Tim smoothed the soil and trenched out where the sprinkler hose goes.

And here's our lovely sod. Or there was our lovely sod. It hasn't come back as lush this spring, but it's still better than what it was.

Here's a shot late in the afternoon-you can see why grass is a challenge with so much shade back here.

So far, all our plants have come back nicely. I've rearranged a few-I had some mums in the window boxes last fall that came back, so I moved them to the side yard in front of the lavender. The lilac had lots of blooms (on the sunny side) now that it's in a sunnier locale, the wisteria and azalea were fabulous.. I'll have to go around the house and snap pics of everything in bloom now. That's for next time. Stay tuned!

Long time, no see!

Yep, I'm back. We were doing real swell last summer, and then we were swarmed by mad crazy mosquitoes. It was painful to go outside. We used mosquito coils, citronella candles, and a wide variety of sprays and lotions, but it was still insane to linger outside. Bummer. It was the first year in a while that the city didn't spray for mosquitoes, and boy, did they take advantage.

I'll have to post some pics on my next post of Tim's new project-a hot tub. Not content with just plopping it on the ground, or incorporating it into the deck, he's decided to enclose it. It's coming along very nicely. hehe now you'll have to stay tuned to see the pictures! His goal is to have it presentable by Sarah's birthday so she can have her friends in.

Of course, this will require some landscaping revisions, which is always fun. I never got around to posting pictures of the other side of the yard where the driveway and vegetable patch is, so I'll make sure to do before and afters before we get started. Fun, fun.