As the sun was out, so was I. Garden activities for about seven hours straight, starting with a bit of hedge trimming, and then a lot of lilac trimming. We have a couple lilacs growing at the back near our door that smell great when they have flowers, but this year, there were hardly any. They were unkempt and it was time for a heavy pruning. And once I got going, I really got stuck into it. Hopefully next year, they will be in better shape.
That is our house - reflected in Paavo the dog's eye.
And after dinner I decided to take some photos and show how it is coming together so far. It is a work in progress, but gardens always are. And, no matter what I have done, after doing it I want to do it another way, or tweak what I did, or something. It is an endless journey.
but an enjoyable one.
First of all though, I took some macro photos of various ants, and I found that there is an ant nest that has moved into my lavender pot. They seem to be thriving in there, as are my lavenders, so I won't disturb them too much. However, while I was watching the ants go over the edge of the concrete pot, I saw that I wasn't the only one watching them.
This lady was looking for an easy lunch.
I had watched her for a bit, as she was watching the ants pass obliviously by, before I moved on. And I guess it got what it was after, because a minute or two later when I went back, she was gone.
And our peonies!!
It is going to be a massive year for our peonies which are absolutely going wild with blooms this year. And with the warm weather today, two turned into twenty opened, with another hundred-plus to go. We are going to have to do a better job of ringing them though, to get more of them to point upward. All the bushes are much larger than in previous years.
And the herb garden which I have been laughed at over due to its droopiness and lack of activity, has finally rooted in and is now cutting sick. We have lots of great flavours in there and the only one that isn't doing as well, is the basil, but it is on the way back. I have faith.
And onto the non-macro garden.
The silvery plant in the left picture above is called Snow-in-summer, which we put in a couple months ago from seedlings. From seed though, we filled two sides of our house and they are just starting to sprout. Next year, the hope is that they will fill the space. We did it from seed because they are quite expensive and we would need many. Though I am considering buying a handful and dividing them, just to have something growing in the space now. The right image shows a little of one of the lilacs that I trimmed back and cut down all the suckers from.
These next pictures are from the areas I have been working on over the last few months, with a sitting and mulched area behind the garden bed what I did in the spring. And the raised planter boxes I made a month or so ago to get the herbs, strawberries and some flowers in the small box, which I made with leftover pieces of wood. The grass is new and hasn't fully covered yet, but it isn't in completely fresh soil, so it has weeds in it already.
One of those things I would change.
A couple months back we also put in the thujas, firstly the ball ones near the sitting area, and a week or so later, the diamond ones that line the retaining wall. They are far enough away to not put pressure on the wall, but they look closer in the image.
And on the other side of the thujas under the window, we are going to put in the first part of the patio. It will be quite a larger area, being about 7 m x 6 m, and will require a step down to the ground level. That should start in a couple weeks, and will hopefully take no more than a week to complete. Then we can grill, without looking like we are rednecks.
And with freshly cut lawn (and many dandelions), this is the view from the front corner and you can see the garden bed that will hopefully have that Snow-in-summer surrounding it. In the late spring, they should flower (if they ever grow) and produce a lot of small, white flowers - hence the name. What I excluded from the images, is the pile of yard rubbish currently residing in the front corner of the yard.
And well, that is the garden. It might not look like much, but it has taken a lot of work to get it this far, and there is a lot more to go. As said though, it is enjoyable work and it is rewarding to see things take shape and actually grow. For the gardeners amongst you, you probably know how much work it can take, even for what seems such a simple task.
Taraz
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