Backyard Update For July 2017

It’s been a pretty good summer so far. As far as the weather goes, things have been relatively cool. We had a few hot days with warm nights, but last night, I had to put a sweatshirt on. Those are definitely my kinds of nights. Anything over 60 degrees during the overnight makes me a miserable person to be around. But those cools ones make me a simple pleasure.

Since March, we’ve also had a higher than average amount of rainfall. For the first months of spring and summer, rain was all we got. The bad part about the rain was that we couldn’t get our gardens going in earnest until July. Nothing was happening throughout the entire month of June because of it. It’s much better now and what’s strange is that I’m looking forward to a bit of precipitation again. The grass outside is getting crispy.

I took this photo of one of the flowers out in Laura’s new garden.

Back when I ordered my climbing gear to remove those trees I told you about, the company that sent it to me included a few packets of seeds with the gear. I thought that was nice, so I handed them off. After thinking nothing was going to come of them, little green sprouts began to emerge from the ground, ending up in some very beautiful flowers. We’re impressed.

All winter, Laura threatened me with re-situating the rocks that surrounded one of the front gardens and creating a new (rather large) garden in a completely different area. I thought she was just running her mouth until I saw her outside one day moving rocks around. I started helping and after 30 or so 600 pound wheelbarrow loads of rocks from the stream, we have something we can build for years to come. I just took this photo below a few hours ago. There are still some empty spots, but I have a feeling once all the plants root in, we’ll have some serious action next season.

On the other side of the house is a garden that’s been there since we moved in. Laura thought it was too small, so she pulled all the rocks out about two feet. We also added a whole bunch of new ones.

I’m not sure if I told you that I put a new mailbox contraption together. I’ll have to take some photos of that. One of the perks of getting a new mailbox was to take the old one and make a little birdhouse out of it. I dug a hole, planted it near the front door and screwed a piece of wood with a hole in it to the front. Check this out.

I don’t really think any birds will move in, but it was fun to put it in the ground and screw the wood to it. It looks interesting.

My young Norway Spruce pine trees are doing very well. Every single one of them made it and is thriving except for two that I had to mow over yesterday. Unfortunately, the neighbor’s dog peed on them and turned them brown. I sadly had to put them out of their misery. Here’s a photo of the trees on one side of the front lawn and down the side lawn.

We also have lots of apples growing. We currently have six apple trees on the property that have almost given us apples in the past. They grow to a certain point and then get eaten by the deer. Here are a few of them in the front.

We usually get to eat a few apples from this tree. They get big enough and for some weird reason, the deer don’t find them as easily as they do the others.

Regarding the firewood for this winter, I’d say we have enough of it. I had a lot left over from last winter and that’s still in the garage.

Just for giggles, I decided to get an additional three cord delivered and dumped in the front. I left that in a pile.

Now I have over six or seven cords in all. Because of all this firewood, I get to let it dry for two years instead of just one. I probably don’t have to buy firewood for the next two years. We also have three tons of wood pellets in the garage as well.

The stream that runs alongside the property has reduced in water volume substantially. Again, it hasn’t rained in a while and that contributed to the reduction. It has never gone completely dry, except during last year for about a month. Our well is nearby, so there was a risk of running out of water. Friends of mine had to get new wells dug during the summer last summer. Personally, I would just wait for the rainy season again. I’m not getting a new well dug. That’s for sure.

Let’s move around to the back of the house. I figured that I could take some good photos from the top of the staircase that leads into the garage attic. I first took a photo of the corner of the property. I have multiple rows of baby pine trees growing in that corner. They double the time it takes for me to mow the lawn. I have to do a lot of zigging and zagging.

From that vantage point, I was also able to take some photos of the pool area, which is teeming will plant life. The pool also looks very blue.

I decided to zoom into our vegetable garden as well. It’s going gangbusters.

And finally, we have one of the gardens in back that Laura pulled the rocks further away from, like she did in the front. We did a lot of work this spring.