I thought the calendar said Spring!!!

Here I am almost a month later and it is supposed to be back down in the mid 30's the next two nights. What a crazy spring. Here are a few most pics from this week. Hope the weather gets the cobwebs out soon. No, these aren't native; just nice to view.

Spring...Maybe

Down in the low 30's tonight. Bringing potted plants back in AGAIN and covering some tender new plantings. Here are a few perennials that popped up with the recent warm spell two weeks ago.

Going Batty

Found this design on the web. Expensive, heavy and difficult to erect. Had it for two years and have bats next door at night but still waiting for the first house guest. The first week it was up I had a woodpecker decide to give it a try.

Wonderland

One of the many reasons to leave things up until after winter is the shelter for the animals; insects that have made winter homes in the plant stems; protection for the birds; and for us - the beauty!!

August 09

The year has been cooler and wetter than last year and the plants ar taking off. Here are a few images. Soon prunning will be needed. As you can see the neighbors still have the lawn. Sad.

June 09

Continually adding more plants. It seems there is always more space when you find a plant you like. As you can see from the photos things are growing rapidly. Next year will require some prunning to keep it manageable. I now have over 80 species in this 2000 sq. ft. front yard, many of which I planted multiple of the same species. The squirrels and chipmunks love the mulch and bird feeder to the point where they are becoming aggressive to the birds. I haven't seen any rapters yet but hopefully they come and take care of the problem. I had to put up a short plastic fench to keep out the rabbits who were killing several small plants they found appealing.

Thanksgiving 08

I'm behind on my posts but on schedule with the gardens. I'm posting a before and after photos of the front yard. The porch roof w/railing never materialized due to zoning regulations so we settled for a nice sitting wall where we can put planters w/pretty non-natives. As you can see in the one photo I put out plant labels for the public because we were on the MAEscapes Garden Tour 08 and had about 90 visitors and happily were lavished with many compliments. Not in the photos are accessories we added. A small water feature, bird bath, feeders, bench, solitary bee house, bird houses, stumps, stepping stones and lighting. In the back yard we adding a bat house, martin house, bumble bee and solitary bee houses and a small vegetable garden as well as many more native plants. In the spring we want to add a large water feature (for asthetic purposes). I also want a bog but not sure where.

Waiting For Spring

The front yard is gone!! My neighbors are still debating whether they know what the heck I'm doing but are too shy to ask. We ripped out everything with the exception of three shrubs. I brought in 8 yards of topsoil to form brims for the two raingardens then put down two layers of cardboard(about 3000 sq ft, WOW) covered with 4 inches of mulch to kill all the grass and weeds. I put in two new lampposts, two electric outlets and two rainbarrels. I managed to get about 50 new trees, shrubs and perennials put in but will plant at least that many more in the spring. Still need to arrange for a porch roof to be installed this winter. Sometime before summer I will add a stepping stone path, benches, water feature, bird houses, tree stumps and what ever else I might think of. Maybe by the end of summer the neighbors will speak up. Once things are in bloom I will post before and after pics.

Fresh Start

It's labor day and the wife and I just cut down 3 trees and ripped out several shrubs in the front yard. Left 5 natives shrubs and ordered several new trees. Would like to add 2 raingardens at the bottom of the slope. Hope to get everything started because the local native garden tour just signed me on for next year.

June, year 2

Coming along fairly well. Removed a non-native and will replace with a native grass later. Some insect damage but I know the good guys willl come in later and take care of them.

Rain gardens in soCentral Pa

I'm a mastergardener who is learning about rain gardens and have a small one I created two years ago and seems to be working as planned. The one planned for this year fell thru though because the trees I needed removed to make space didn't happen. Seems the tree root grinding people are too busy to reply to my small dollar job. It will just provide me another year to better plan the design for my front yard.