New Home and Garden

The bird tree

I brought this grass over here with me. It has doubled in size since I put it in a pot.

A beautiful sunset taken from the back porch.

The large deodora cedar in the front yard.

Looks like fun. Lots of open spaces to fill. The sunset is beautiful, when did you take that picture!

I took the sunset picture a few weeks ago. This one is the first one I took just a few seconds earlier. Looking out over the Olympics

This message was edited Jan 25, 2012 5:16 PM

With a view like that you guys will be spening lots of time on that back deck. So beautiful. Mother nature is the best painter!

Now I will tell the adventure of the deodora in the front yard. One year it will have pollen cones and everything in the neighborhood turns yellow. Horrible stuff. The next year it has large pitchy cones that fall off the tree and come completely apart. Very messy. So---------

Down she comes

In the picture above you can see another deodora on the right side in neighbors yard. That's two houses up. The neighbor near us also had the same tree. The stump of that one is where the orange pumpkin thing is. We had our stump ground up and now I have a huge pile of mulch to add to the new flower beds.

Busy bees

These guys were really good. I have one branch missing on a vine maple that was under the tree that's all. They did it for a very good price too. Way less than anyone else. Our son Patrick is in the red shirt and he is taking all the wood.

The tree had two tops. The one up the hill has three tops.

Lots of firewood.

The next day he came back and ground up the stump. Took out the small holly on the corner that hung out over the sidewalk and ground that stump also. I miss that beautiful tree but it was just too big and messy. The limbs were going over the roof and across the sidewalk. Must make new plans. Definately need some planting along the wall.

Amber in the rain and wind.

This message was edited Jan 27, 2012 5:23 PM

Well, trees like that are great but not close to your house. What a big job. This opens up lots of options! Amber is a cutie! Mom let me in its wet out here!

Oh my. Now I'm wondering what trees I am planting now that will become problems to someone in the future and will be taken down. Deodara cedars are so pretty and graceful, I'd been considering the option of planting one, but hmmm. It is really hard to envision the true mature size of a large tree.

Thanks for the photos! Beautiful twin babies! Makes me want to have another one, but 3 is enough for me for now.

Scrub jays are very common here at around 500 feet - 1000 feet elevation. Always had a pair in my previous yard in Portland (500 feet), as well as here in Salem (750 feet). I love them, too.

The jays are now coming to eat the seeds and suet. I just love that they are here.

Beautiful house and yard. I know you will have fun filling it up.

Beautiful babies!!! Twins are such fun. Mine are now 33 and fathers. Love generational pics.

hi Willow, I was just revisiting this thread to see the spaces in your yard that might be worked on in a group DG effort later this Spring. What an adventure taking that huge tree down, but I see it opens up a lot of space and brings in the sun.

Your twin great-grandbabies are absolutely darling and their mother radiant! I also love the four generations photo.

Hi mauryhill, I drew a tentative plan for the front today. Hopefully I can get it laid out and bring some dirt in soon. I am going to re-do the front walkway so I should do that first.

It will soon feel even more like home as you have your ideas gradually become reality. A front walkway is important, since it welcomes you in. I've been working on a front walk a bit at a time over the last 2 years, and it really is satisfying to step onto those bricks after a long day at work and traipse up to the front door without fighting the weeds and the puddles.

This walkway is cracking up and slanted toward the sunken driveway. It feels weird to walk on it and totally unsafe. Very narrow. Hopefully I can use the broken-up concrete for stepping stones elswhere. It is aggregate, I like that.

Uneven and dangerous sounds bad. That is definitely a priority. Remember to leave some projects for us to help you with! You don't have to have it all done before we get there to help out.
I've used broken concrete for several things, a patio, a low garden wall and garden border. Aggregate is definitely a nicer look than plain concrete. The best thing is it's been a free resource. I did my front pathway with cobblestone pavers because I wanted it to be wide and easy to walk on for my mother who has balance issues.

I have big black rocks along the backyard bed and I want to eliminate that and use the rocks in the front. That will be fun LOL I'm just going to plant shrubs down the wall in the back with no actual flower bed. Have to take the plants out that are along the walkway. There is lots to do. I have roses to move and a new bed to make for them.

The rocks sound like a big job, but will be worth it to arrange your beds how you would like them. Are you planning to bring some of your plants from your other house?

Yes, I brought some while we were moving and I'm going out there in March to get some more. Starts of all the hostas and hellebores, two maple trees and a small elm. Some sedums. The rocks are all small enough to carry. DD and I hauled them in here from a quarry in Belfair. I can get those moved.

Good thing the rocks are of manageable size! I'm glad you are bringing some plants and their offspring to your current home. It will be kind of like having old friends around you along with the new.

Another thing...I was wondering what material you are planning to make your new front walkway out of.

This message was edited Feb 24, 2012 4:34 PM

For the actual sidewalk, aggregate concrete. For the path in the new flower bed I have been thinging of the pathway gravel they have now.
Open to suggestions.

Had to have my 18 year old Shadow cat put to sleep on Wed. She had kidney disease and had only two months or so to live. We laid her to rest in the backyard. While digging the hole I discovered I have about fifteen inches of the most beautful fluffiest black soil I have ever seen. You could dig it with your hands.

Even the blackest of clouds have a silver lining. Sympathy about your cat, Willow!

I'm so sorry about your kitty. :-( Such a long-time companion is hard to lose, and even with the illness and little time left, a tough decision.
Deep soil like that is rare around here. Every garden I ever started was mucky mud in the Winter, hard baked clay in the Summer, and took years to get anywhere near fluffy soil (and even then only a few inches of it).

Going to bring this thread up again and up-date things. Will be back soon. This is the pink dogwood and the neighbors golden chain.

Golden chains look so exotic to me -- are they fragrant?

I just ran out in the rain to sniff. Didn't smell anything. Will try it when the sun shines.
A picture of the forsythia.

Hen and chicks that survived with a peony behind them. This peony is dark red and has beautiful fall color foliage.

This message was edited May 9, 2012 1:39 PM

This flower bed had white hyacinth, white bluebells, white tulips and white with pink tinge tulips. The hellebore is a pale pink and I will have lots of seeds soon if anyone wants them. And Mindy's butt.

Also blue grape hyacinths and chin-----dox? bulbs

This message was edited May 9, 2012 1:44 PM

a few die-hard daffs. Tiny ones are tete-tete I think.

The current. It is really pretty. About six feet tall.

The quince. I have a ton of these starts. Also golden chains and laurel starts.

The apple tree I pruned and it flowering. I hope the multiple works