Tuesday, May 17, 2016

The Garden In May, Part II







Welcome to the backyard, the most challenging part of the garden.  It is big, it is shady as well as very sunny in parts, and it is the playpen of Madison, our Westie, and Lily the lab.    It is a joint effort between my daughter and me and we argue consult constantly on what goes in and what comes out.   We have learned to compromise and to pick our battles.  Some of them carry over from one year to the next, but we are still friends...until the next battle.

The grass is the biggest headache in the back.  We have drainage problems due to a sloping yard that guides the water down to the creek on the other side of the fence when we have big storms.  We can only plant fescue in the Fall,  so this year we will have to live with big empty patches.  It irritates me to no end but life is not perfect.  Neither is our yard.

The hostas are the stars of the year.  They are on steroids! Keep in mind this is only the second week in May.























The New Dawn rose by the bird house.  No tenants this year.  Coco, has done a good job of keeping new parents away.




Confederate jasmine planted three years ago.







The peonies have also had a good year.







A closer look of the birdhouse.




This year's project is the path to the fence which gets very muddy when it rains. Those are flats of sedum I purchased at Lowe's.  We'll see how they do.  I've left the right side open so we can have access to the other side of the fence.






Madame Mere's private garden.










The climbing Japanese hydrangea with Mountain Laurel in back is by the gate that separates the front and back garden.  It leads to MM's apartment from the outside.








And here's Coco, whose help in patrolling the yard and keeping it free of bunnies is indispensable in the preservation of this garden, particularly the hostas.  We are lucky to have a fence and a Westie to keep the deer away.




Next up, my domain...the front yard.

7 comments:

  1. I like the way your yard features so many shades of green; a very relaxing scheme. The bird house, even tenantless, adds a nice vertical focal point.
    --Jim

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jim. Yes the birdhouse was a no brainier!

      Delete
  2. Oh, it's all looking rather lovely and lush. You must be thrilled. I love hostas but the snails love them more it seems so, I give up, sigh.

    So lovely that Madame Mere enjoys her very own private garden, which I'm certain, is good for the soul and the body.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks. We are enjoying...finally!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful! I love the different shades of green in the hostas, especially the touches of blue-green. Your garden must be so restful to look at.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the blue green, Francie. So glad you noticed!

      Delete

Thank you for visiting Lindaraxa. Your comments are much appreciated.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.