Matt's Victory of the Vine

Matt was finally able to get most of the dead vine off of one of the trees. He started killing the vine last autumn. All the brush in the yard in these pictures is all vine. This was a HUGE vine, as you can see. In the first picture, that's the tree it came off of - the one on the right. You can see the dark mark winding up the tree where the vine was. The device he's holding is our extendable tree pruner/saw. Go Matt!

The Front of the House

This is the bed which we planted the astilbe. They have yet to sprout. I dug them up two weeks ago to see if they had rotted. They were just starting to grow roots. Before I replanted them, I added sand, compost, and humus to the soil. I'm just going to have to be patient with these. This is where the one daffodil was. In the sunny corner, we planted some geraniums.

Only two of our mums survived from last fall. Since the bed was fairly empty, we planted yellow marigolds and red salvia. The little, old lady across the street really likes to look at them.

We've always had a spigot on the west side of the house but it didn't have a handle. Matt fixed that little problem. It's really nice having a hose on that side so I can water my front plants.

Here is the large bed in front of the front porch. We tilled up dirt and mixed in compost and humus. It took us a couple days to do this, needless to say. The boxwoods and impatiens are going in this bed.

Matt, the Brush, and Grooming the Trees

Here is Matt cleaning up the remainder of the sideways tree that we took down the weekend before. Foo and Ollie are supervising. They are really good at watching us and looking cute.

I'm Ready for my Close-up, Mrs. Bender

Having the irises in full bloom allows for many pictures to be taken. The white ones are gorgeous. Enjoy!

The Irises are in Full Bloom!

The irises! The irises! This is the first time I've ever seen them in full bloom. All the full grown plants are blooming. The babies will get big enough this year to bloom next year. Most of the irises are white or deep red. The two next to the patio are yellow. I had no idea which plants were going to be which colors. I took these pictures last weekend, which also happened to be the last sunny day we had. Of course, I never mind the rain. The less I have to water the garden!

The Enormous Task of Cleaning Up the Trees

So here we are tackling (helping) our trees. These pictures are from the first of May. The pile of wood in the first picture is what is left from the tree that was growing sideways in our yard. It was about 30 feet tall. Since it was already leaning into our yard, it fell right into our yard. In the second picture, we also cut off the who-knows-how-old 30-foot sprout from this tree. It had strung itself out over the middle of our yard. We have a little more sun in our yard, but not much. The taller trees still make sure we have no more than partial sun anywhere in our yard. Next, I'll be posting pictures of more irises blooming (very pretty) and the tree and brush cleanup in the yard. For now, back to the yard. Matt has just uncovered a whole bunch of weeds for me to pull up. Yeah!

Daffodils, Rockcress, and Black and Blue Sage

Here are the last of the "survivor" plants. The black and blue sage is in the pot. It definitely didn't like to be overwintered in the basement. He may eventually go in the yard like the lemon verbena. They're good pals. The sage is starting to flower now. He gets almost-black shoots and then produces blue flowers. In the other picture, we have the rockcress which is almost flowered out in this picture. He had quite a few white flowers on him in early April. Behind the rockcress is the daffodil that we transplanted from the front yard. He was in full shade and by himself. Poor Daffodil! So after he was done flowering, we placed him by the irises.