In praise of Thuja Green Giants

When we planted these Thuja Green Giant arborvitae trees less than 5 years ago, all 7 of them came in one little box. We were underwhelmed. Now, they are *this* close to offering the privacy, shade and windbreak we envisioned when we planted them. They've been beautiful, easy-care trees and we highly recommend them. (We put 4 on the north end of the yard, and 3 on the south. Those on the north are slightly taller, but they've all done well.)

September 2006

June 2009

May 2011

June 2011

July 2012

July 2012

Perfect spring day

 Wonderful morning to take photos. The sky is overcast but the air is cool and everything is lush from a recent rain. Every year I forget how much I love spring until it arrives it all its glory.

Bleeding Hearts are back!

After two years thinking we'd lost the Bleeding Hearts, we walked out one day to discover they were back and blooming beautifully! Such a unique plant. I'm glad we didn't really lose it.

What a difference mulch makes

We spent a recent Saturday putting fresh mulch on all the flowerbeds and around the trees. We hadn't done that for a couple years, and it looks so nice! Hopefully it will save us some weeding this summer, too.

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers, I think because they almost always bloom in time for my birthday. This lovely bouquet came from the Smoky Hills in Ellsworth County.

Cinco de Mayo ~ more kitchen window views

Sadly, this beautiful fuschia bought in Iowa did not survive more than a few weeks in the early heat wave Kansas experienced. It was an early Mother's Day gift, and I sure did enjoy it while it lasted.
s

The view from our kitchen window

There's a new pond in the meadow across the street, which makes for a lovely view––at least until the grasses grow taller.

Good Friday

Celebrating Good Friday (and Earth Day) by planting our flower pots (and wearing this T-shirt).

What's blooming April 20. . .

We came home from almost a week in California to find the garden exploding. Can't wait to start filling flower pots!

April 11 and columbine is blooming

I love the way columbine fills in while everything else is just starting to grow.

The Lightpole Garden

 We have a tendency to name our garden plots and flower beds. It just makes it easier to discuss the garden. Well, Lightpole Garden caused a LOT of discussion from the beginning. Ken wanted to put a small flower bed around the street light pole at the edge of our yard so he could mow a nice curve and not have to weed-eat around the pole. I thought that would only draw attention to a pole we'd rather wasn't in our yard. But THE gardener usually wins these kind of discussions (because he's usually right.)

We killed (we hope!) the evil, stinky, invasive plant we had in the Lightpole Garden the last couple years. (I don't remember its name or I'd warn you about it!) This year we chose an annual (unless we have a warm winter?) Dianthus to replace it. The tag says it will bloom spring to fall and needs just the amount of sun that spot gets––and we could fill the bed for $9.47. I'll post "after" photos later this summer. Those beautiul rocks came from Ken's 101-year-old grandpa's pastures in the Smoky Hills of Ellsworth County.

April 7 and our first flowers of the year are in! Yay! 

Blooms!

April 5, and we have green, green grass, and almost overnight, the pear trees across the street are in full, beautiful bloom. We've been cutting back a few grasses each evening and are getting close to finished. Tomorrow night's project will be the rock wall. You can see on the right where we left off with tonight's cutting.

Our Korean Sun ornamental pear is blooming, but sadly half the tree appears to be dead. We have not had very good luck with our trees, and will be sad if we lose this one, too. For now we pruned some of the for-sure dead branches and are taking a wait-and-see approach.

We have green grass!

March 24 and the grass is mowed and GREEN! We've been cutting back a few of the tall grasses each nice day (the ones in the first photo below got whacked down tonight) and everything is sprouting and greening up like crazy!

Hard to believe. . .

That this:

Will soon look like this:


And this:

Will soon look like this:
 
The first day of spring is just three days away and we've had some great days for pruning and mowing down grasses getting everything ready to start growing again! We can hardly WAIT!

Springing ahead!

It's the 12th of March and for the last two days, the weather has been nice enough that we could get out in the yard. We've been pruning shrubs and trees like crazy. I love cutting everything back because even though it looks barren and drab right now, the new spring growth can't be far behind. I can hardly wait to start filling those flower pots!

Best of all, Daylight Savings Time will give us some extra hours outdoors!

17 (seventeen!!!) inches of snow!

A winter storm . . . and the calm after

The first of February brought a winter storm with ice and snow and wind and below-zero temps. Today, February 2, it's still extremely cold, but the wind has died down, the sun is shining, and the snow is beautiful. Even the birds seem happy about that.