Our Big Blue House: shrub garden

WHAT'S BLOOMING AT THE BONAM'S SPRING 2012

The hyacinths have come and gone, as did our daffodils. Thier minature cousins (iris,daffodil, hyacinth and tulips) all bloomed about a month ago, and our crocus have been gone since the beginning of March. The paperwhites have also bloomed and faded by the time we took these photos.

Shrub Garden

Backyard Walkway

Since we dove right into projects this spring, we didn't get pictures taken and uploaded to the blog as quickly as we should have. Sadly, these pictures were taken a few weeks past the tulip's prime.

None-the-less, they are still beautiful spring pictures of the Big Blue House.

These pictures are the fruits of our labor (and the cause of our previous November back injuries)

Berm

Front yard walkway to the drive

Front Birch Bed

Front Peach Tree Bed

Foundation Planting

A few weeks earlier the Rhododendron behind the Azaleas was in bloom as well. This photo was taken after I had cleaned up the area and snipped quite a few spent tulips.

Foundation Planting

Corner Fence / Paperbark Maple Garden

It's a pity that we didn't snap a picture of this sooner. The corner fence had many more hyacinths and tulips a few weeks earlier. That is an Olga Mezitt Rhodo behind the fence. Each spring she is STUNNING. Every passer-by asks about Olga.

Native Garden

The photo to the right is of our Native Praire Garden. This photo was taken early April...and YES those are coneflower next to the tulips. They came up REALLY early this year.

Mature Lilac

My mom's nat geo moment

Berm

In just a few weeks, the tulips on the berm will be traded out for Allium. I cannot wait to see that. I adore Allium.

Fenceline

Front Peach Tree Bed

Fenceline

Side of house pulling into our Drive

Another of Mom's Nat Geo Moments

In the past few days, we've done quite a bit of "maintenance and clean-up" around our property.

Lex has worked on making the dirt pile smaller and I have completed spring bed clean-up on two sides of our house. It's amazing how great things look when you turn your mulch. It looks brand new. It's almost like a whole new flower bed... but better because the plants are established! Our grass should look much better in a few weeks. It was re-seeded yesterday. Yes sir-re. Things are looking up at 13831.

The dirt pile is shrinking. Lex was so pleased with himself, somehow he managed to create a tunnel right through the middle of the dirt pile. It was like he was a 6 year old boy all over again.

We pulled our our Japanese Maple yesterday. It wasn't a surprise that It didn't come back. When we put it in last summer... it was already in bad shape. At least we have a 1 year guarantee on all plants. So with that in mind we put in a ornamental plum, which is at least the same basic color as the maple was. I was VERY pleased with the different shape of the tree in the shrub bed. I realized that all things happen for a reason, and that I didn't really care much for the look of the maple at all. So with me being as pleased as I was... I was motivated to finish off the shrub garden with a decorative rock border.

My second revelation yesterday was that during the winter months, i need to start exercising/training for gardening in the spring. I am using muscles that have not been used in months, and boy are they sore. But, the yard looks great and when it comes to my aching arms...as John Cougar Mellencamp says... it hurts so good.