What's going on in our yard

I've been busily working in our yard the past few months.  It all started a few months ago when I decided that THIS was the year to plant a container garden.  I've wanted to the last few summers, but I was either pregnant or nursing an infant and I just couldn't get my energy up to make it happen.  But since I fit in neither of those categories this summer, I decided to give it a shot!

After researching container gardening, trying to decide what exactly I wanted to plant, and then shopping around for cute containers, I felt very overwhelmed.  Too many pretty pots, too many pretty plants, they were all more expensive that I'd hoped and I couldn't decide what kind of configuration or where to put them all.  So, I finally decided to give up on the container idea and just go ahead and do a raised bed garden.  It seemed to be more economical and to make more sense.  But where to put it?  How to construct it?  (Have you figured out by now that I'm not good at making decisions?)  I finally came up with this grand plan which involved new flower beds, two raised garden spots, and a beautiful stone paver patio for the grill and (to-be-purchased) patio furniture.  I informed Randy of my plan and he laughed.  He basically informed me that with everything he has going on right now (geez, I still need to write THAT blog, don't I?) there was no way that would become a reality.  So, back to the drawing board.  :-)

Once I finally came back down from fantasy land, I also realized that if I was going to get serious about this, it needed to happen soon, and that we also needed new gutters, and the gutter guys would trample my plants if I didn't make that happen first.  So, after procrastinating about it for almost five years (why???) I arranged for new gutters to be put on the house.  All because of my little garden dream.  Ha!

So here are the "before" pics of the back of the house.

 There was noooooo gutter on this side.  (We tore down a caved in "carport" that was attached to the house when we first moved in.)

 And there were yucky, rusted, falling off gutters on this side.

The "after".  I just took this five minutes ago.  Pretty.  (If you ignore the lack of paint in a few spots...)

I am quite pleased with myself.  :-)  The main shrubs here are arborvitae, holly, and euonymus.  Apparently I need to take a closer picture of the large flower bed, because you can't really see what's going on there.  But, believe me, it's pretty.  :-)  I can't wait to see them all filled in!

A few more pics of what's going on in our yard:

 (Please ignore the redneck tire: PS- anybody need a pickup truck tire?)
I planted hostas and violas alongside the shed.  And yes, there are Easter eggs scattered in the grass.

 My raised bed garden!  Featuring lavendar, lemon thyme, marigolds, red and green bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, big ole fat tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini squash, romaine lettuce and strawberries!  I also planted some zinnia, dill, and garlic chive seeds.  We're having a great time watching it grow!  Can't wait to eat some of the yumminess.  Mmmmmmm!

 Our romaine lettuce is popping up!  Yippee!  (Ignore the weeds: I planted a fair amount of seeds, and I'm afraid to pull anything out until I know exactly what it is, teehee.)

 I planted sunflower seeds (and other seeds) between the shrubs in the new flower beds.  These bad boys have the potential of reaching 12 feet tall!  I thought the kids would enjoy watching them get huge.

 Our peach tree.  The branches keep getting heavier and lower.

 Baby peaches!

 Hydrangea!  I've wanted one of these in my yard for five years now, and I finally cleaned out a spot in the front of the house for one.  I wish it would just grow overnight!!!

 This is a bed alongside the house where we never go.  Because of that, I've never planted anything there.  I decided to split some hostas that I planted in the front of the house a few years back, and I transplanted these guys to this spot.  They seem to like it here!  (Please ignore the weeds... this is a very shady spot in our yard where nothing but weeds grow.)

 Blueberry bush!  I planted two of these in one of the new flower beds in the back yard, five feet apart, for proper pollination.  :-)  They already have baby berries on them!  Yippee!

 Honeysuckle vine growing on the fence!  We inherited this.  It smells sooooo good!

 Rhododendron!  This is in the front of the house where there is very limited sun.  This plant seems very happy there!  See the pretty bright green new leaves?  Hooray!  The closed up blooms appeared to be pink in the store, but they turned out to be white.  And they're already gone.  Bummer.  PS- There's a hosta to the right, one of the ones that I mentioned splitting a few paragraphs ago.

 Our garden today!  I added the stakes last night.  Exciting!

A closer view of what's going on around the grill (in the back of the house).  Arborvitae to the left, holly to the right.

There are several other things that I planted (or transplanted) that I apparently haven't taken pictures of.  There are three pieris shrubs in the front of the house, and two new dwarf hollies and a gardenia bush alongside the sidewalk.  I'll have to snap some pics of those to include in my next garden update.

Can you tell that I have a new hobby?

Happy gardening!