A Tour of the Back Yard

 Let me take you on a virtual tour of the back yard.  We'll stand on the patio and first look to our left (east) and finish up with the view to the right (west). For the last several years there was a big blue eyesore pool sitting on the gravel 'pad', boy am I glad to not have it there!  Though I admit to being a little sad that we won't have a pool to play in this year.  After taking down the pool I made a fire-pit with some urbanite claimed from my friend, Craig aka Craigslist.  We became quite close last year as I gathered up supplies for various projects.   Beyond the fire-pit is what was supposed to be my raised vegetable bed. I say "supposed to be" because it just has never worked out very well for me.  For one thing it just hasn't gotten enough sun there and for another I am one of the few gardeners who cannot even grow zucchini, just ask my friend Katie. Sure, I'd like to bring fresh veggies in from the garden for a summer meal but it just hasn't worked that way for me.  So this past fall I put quite a few tulip bulbs in with the herbs, rhubarb and garlic that are currently in the bed.  Looks like the rhubarb is happy there.

The passionflower vine, of which we can only see half at the back left, is really starting to put on some growth.  I'm hoping for blooms this year.  And I was so pleased to see the clematis is back and growing quickly.  I've had bad luck with them in the past. 

We had the pine tree trimmed up quite a bit to relieve it of dead branches and needles in the hopes that it will let in more sunshine and just have a better appearance.  It used to screen out the neighbor's yard but as the lower branches died it became less and less of a screen.  I was all set to have it removed until the weekend a hawk attacked one of my chickens while they were out free-ranging and I realized that removing the tree would open up their compound quite a bit and not provide cover for them.

The chicken wire is there to protect the young plants as they emerge, I hope to be able to remove it sometime this summer and hope that they won't destroy the plants when I do.  Right now there are hostas, astilbe, iris and hardy a hardy fuchsia all coming up in this area.

   

 

The "compound" as I call it is pretty much thanks to Craigslist and neighbors.  I got real good at asking people for their discards, thought of even taking the nickname Dumpster Diva.  It all started with a pile of fence boards I saw while out on a walk one evening.  They were the beginning of the first chicken house, the one with the red door.  That was in 2013. The second house, fence and arbor were added in 2014 and continue to evolve as need arises.  The first house sat back there alone and the girls spent most of their time free-ranging throughout the yard. Then in 2014 I realized that they really did create quite a bit of mess and I didn't want to be constantly cleaning up after so I put up a temporary fence.  About that same time I added 3 more chicks to the bunch thus the need to build a second house.  And so on.....

There is a pink honeysuckle growing in a pot that I hope will one day grow up and over the arbor. But first I must finish securing the arbor. 

Even with clipped wings the girls occasionally fly out of the compound so I have put up the netting and chicken wire to keep them in.  They quickly figured out that they can fly to the top of the door and get out and they do it at least once a week.  Someday I will tackle that problem too.  Like I said it is an ever changing project as the needs arise.  

I love all the pink flowers (tulips) blooming throughout the yard and I definitely want to plant MORE this fall so I can enjoy them next spring.   Not sure what caused that crater in the back of the lawn but it's been there for a few years.  I filled it in with some compost and hope to get some grass growing there again.

I'm starting some lilies in the pots in the above photo.  That is where my raspberry patch used to be.  Quite a few years ago I started out with 19 canes donated by Dad.  We planted them along the dog kennel fence.  The first year the yield was about 5 berries per day.  The following year we were up to about 1/2 cup per day.  A few years back the plants started dying off.  I started planting the runners outside our fence, between the sidewalk and fence. They are doing pretty well.  Two years ago I topped out at over 30 pounds of berries picked (not including the ones we ate as we picked) and by last year I had a yield of just 15 pounds.  This year we have just a few plants left in the back yard and I am working to keep the other patch going.

 

Lastly you can see just a few raspberry canes inside the dog kennel and the pot of tulips just outside the fence.

What I don't show is the shed, the boat and all the supplies I have stacked up waiting to be used in projects.  I wish I didn't see them either!

Photos from April 12, 2015. 

Thanks for visiting.  Feel free to leave a comment. I'd love to know you stopped by.