Weekend Working in the Yard

Hubby and I spent the better part of this weekend working outside in the garden. Whew! First we visited the nursery to get some flowers and tomato plants - things we hadn't started from seed already. Then I weeded while he mowed. And then I snapped some pictures of what's blooming at the moment, so let's take a bit of a tour.



The snowball bush at the right sits on the east side of our house. It's getting the morning sun in this picture. To the left of it is lavender, which is just beginning to reawaken. In front are the tulips, which are mostly spent. I've got to wait until the green leaves turn brown before twisting them off the bulb. That gives the bulb time to store nutrients for next year. Once the tulips are out of the way, there will be some blue lobelia at the front of the bed along the border edging.


And speaking of blue lobelia and this same bed, look at one of my very favorite garden whimsies. It's a sea serpent (in three pieces, but you can almost imagine her "swimming" in the ground!)
That's a rose bush to the left, but in back of her is blue chip campanula and in front of her are the lobelia starts. When they grow in and bloom, the serpent will hopefully be swimming in a sea of blue!!

Now to the front yard. This is our Golden Chain tree. It's a bit hard in this picture to see the golden flower chains hanging down, but they are there. Maybe I can get a better picture in a few days.

Does anybody else name their trees???? I have a Flowering Pear that I named Perry (real original - not! pear - peary - perry). We also have an apricot tree that is of a variety adapted to the Utah climate, and it's called a Mormon Chinese Apricot tree. I've named it DeWong. And finally, there's my Golden Chain Tree. Her name is....... Aretha. (Chay-chay-Chaaaaaiiiin.... Chain of Fools......)

Next we move to a little shady area to the side of the front porch (in my blog header picture it's between the urn and the rose tree, toward the back)

In the forefront is that daylily. Behind it are bleeding heart, a stepping stone, a hosta and columbine........ all of them just waking up for the season.

Bruce got the brunt of the hard work this weekend. He had to get the sprinklers going, put soaker hoses in his newly-arranged vegetable garden, then he planted the veggies and mowed the grass.


And still left to do.......... These are the flowers I still have to plant. Usually we use up all the wood before spring hits, but this year we didn't (because this was the SECOND load!), so it'll probably stay there. The tortoise metal sculpture needs to be hung - we got it in Arizona earlier this year. The lattice work will go up along the grape arbor to replace the panel that broke last year (the grapes were sooooooooo prolific and heavy!). When the grape vines begin filling in and all the plants and flowers are IN, I'll snap some patio pictures. But for now, I'm off to go grab a wine cooler and sit out in my wicker rocker to relax!!