My Built Environment: Good, Bad, and Really Ugly

Spring has finally sprung, and with all the recent rains, everything is really green and beginning to bloom! With the dry winter, the Iris have been simply fabulous this year! Our Hawthorne tree actually bloomed this year. All the color, makes our red house really stand out! I actually built our compost bins this year, 4 bins total measuring 4 feet x 4 feet square, by 3 feet tall. One of the bins is for table scraps and I have planted red worms in that one. As the worms multiply, I will add some to the other bins to aid in the composting.

Unfortunately, the dry winters have also cost us a lot of die back, and even some lost plants. The most notable one is our green grape. This weekend I am going to try to take it out and plant a new one. All of the red grapes survived, but we will miss the green grapes. Those were great to eat! See the link below for some pictures from our yard.

Spring Garden 2008

It seems like a short time between winter and spring this year. Not much more than a week ago we were still having frigid temperatures. The last of the snow finally melted in our yard this week, with most of it gone a week ago.

Now this week, we have tulip bulbs coming up, and crocuses too! Won’t be long before I am at it, cutting everything down and getting the yard ready for another showcase summer. Hopefully we will be on more of a normal moisture cycle this year. The past seven years we have been in this house have certainly been eratic from a weather and moisture standpoint. Not much to build or landscape in the garden this year, which is good, cuase this spring we are painting the exterior of the house. That will be a project.

I am also looking for large 20 inch or so hanging baskets for our porch. If anyone knows were to get some, please let me know!