The Veggie Garden in August

With the crazy busyness of the reunion, I neglected to show Lyle's finished vegetable garden.

Shame on me, cause it's pretty darn cool.

This is the largest of the 3 garden entrances, the only one that required 2 gates.  It leads to the compost bins and the strawberry patch.

 The raised concrete beds were worth every bit of effort and are brimming over with herbs and veggies.

Lyle's good friend, Forrest, was our concrete mentor and spent many long hours helping Lyle.  

Only 3 months ago, when I wrote about our messy progress (and before Lyle built the grape arbor), those same beds looked like this.  Quite a difference.

The brick pathways are a big improvement over the weedy dirt.

It's been an unusually hot summer in the northwest and everything's thriving.

  For the past several nights, we've eaten almost exclusively from our garden.  Even so, we're giving away tomatoes and potatoes and zucchini left and right.

I think I need to learn how to can.

Like today.

Lyle washes the produce off in his outdoor sink and then dumps the sludge that goes into the bucket into the compost bins..... 

or we give it to the willing-to-eat-anything goats.

Nothing yet from the grape vine, but it's in the works. 

The smallest entrance to the vegetable garden is the gate near the barn door--the barn door that is now locked thanks to our weed whacker thief,

but the barn cats can still come and go.

I love how the brick walkway curves around the barn.  

We planted some Little Lime hydrangeas and azaleas.

A concrete step (with a ramp in the middle) leads to the upper level of the garden.

The lower level has enough space for a little patio with a bench on one side and a cafe table and chairs on the other.

On the barn, it took many years for the climbing hydrangea to finally bloom, but it's now as consistent as Old Faithful.  

Eight years ago, you could barely see it at the bottom of the barn, but it will soon head over the rooftop and creep around the chicken coop (the chicken coop that was non-existent 8 years ago).  It's not a vine that packs a huge WOW factor, but has kind of a quiet elegance.  

It's one of my very favorite things we've ever planted.

 This year I tried a new vine on the front of the barn--solanum crispum, or a Chilean potato vine.   It had a prolific bloom in the spring, and now is on it's second, more modest bloom.  

Adorable little purple flowers with yellow centers.

    

The second arbor is near the barn and heads down to the pasture.

It's a veggie garden that can easily feed our family of 7....

.....and then some!

So, if you're hankering for some veggies, stop by and help yourself.

Unless you're the weed whacker thief.

You've already helped yourself plenty.

Ugly Duckling No More--Hillside Edition

After years of dreaming, months of planning, and several weeks of work, the big yard project of 2013 is done.

No, that doesn't accurately describe it.  Let me start over.

After years of dreaming, months of planning, and several weeks of work, the big yard project of our whole mortal existence (yes, that's better) is done.

My expectations were quite high.   Having done 95% of our home improvements on our own, I expected a lot from professionals.  My expectations were so high that I worried I'd maybe be disappointed with the end result, or feel that it wasn't worth the expense, or always wonder if we could have done just as good a job on our own.

Well, yesterday was the day that Lyle and I finally surveyed the finished hillside.

My ridiculously high expectations were actually exceeded.

We could not have done what Susan Calhoun at Plantswoman Design planned out and her crew brought to life.

We didn't have the know-how or desire to install the type of sprinkler system that even in August will keep our lawn looking like this......

.....instead of like this, which was its usual state every summer.

We couldn't have safely moved the ugly rocks that were serving only as weed and blackberry collection sites.

And we definitely couldn't have so expertly put them together to make this amazing waterfall.......the waterfall that I should mention I told Lyle I didn't want.  (He was at work the day they turned the pump on for the first time.  I texted him and said, "I was wrong.  You were right.")
And seriously, have those "ugly" rocks been upgraded or what?  Who knew I had such a goldmine in stone, just waiting to be liberated?

I love the shallow depth of the pond.  They'd actually dug quite deep and then filled the hole with rocks, so I wouldn't worry about visiting toddlers drowning and my kids could actually wade through without worrying about puncturing the liner.  XiXi and Cholita's feet have been very wrinkled and wet the past few days from all the time they've spent in the pond.  

We were intimidated by the size of the hillside.  We wanted privacy from the road, which we will eventually have, as the hedgerow plants will grow to about 10 feet, and we wanted ample planting beds, but didn't know where to stop beds and start lawn or how to do the paths.

I love the curves and feel like we've got a perfect grass to plant ratio, especially as the plants fill in.

This entry arbor was already here, but it seems somehow different now that there's such an amazing view on the other side.

We wanted to be able to enjoy our view of the mountains to the west and have an area that we could actually use at the top of the hill.  

This flagstone seating area is one of my favorite things about the design.

The path's twists and turns make everything seem so much larger.

I currently cannot be sent outside for any errands, at least not quick errands, because I'm completely distracted and have to do a quick walk-through.  The path is too darn inviting.

There's such a great mix of plants and I can't wait to see them all through the year and enjoy their different bloom times.  

This section by the wisteria walkway was not so lovely before, which was a pity since Lyle spent so much time working on the arbor.  

Now, the rockery plants will fill in and cascade and be just gorgeous.

This part of the yard was so precarious to mow; I almost drove into the arbor many times.  

But those days are over.

 We have a bench on the other side of this path and in the past 24 hours, I've spent way too much time sitting here, looking at the hill and sighing.  I cannot believe this is our yard.  

But my sitting time is done.  Fifty people will be here come Monday and there's one or two things that need doing!

Thank you Plantswoman Design!  We love it!      

Almost

I know, I know, I said we were almost done a week ago.  But really, we are now almost done.  I'd say at least 75% of the plants are in the ground.

This was just a sampling, waiting on our hill for planting day.  I love the combination of the silver heather and the golden heather.  You can also see some teucrium in the upper left, pulmonaria with the gray-green leaves, a few chamaecyparis "mops" (the ever"green" with the yellow foliage), bergenia, a flat of a couple of different saxifraga (Aureopunctata and Maroon Beauty), and a flat of Autumn Joy sedum.  Most of those are now planted in the rock garden.

The pond pump, which has been the holdup for this stage of the project, is hopefully arriving today, the sod will be laid Wednesday, the rest of the plants will get here Thursday, and the final dressing of mulch will happen on Friday.

The reunion starts Monday.  Nothing like cutting it close.

A Sneak Peak

So much is happening right now.  Everything is on the verge of being done and I'm tempted to just wait and post a final reveal.  

But that would require patience.

The veggie garden teenager crew did some pretty darn amazing work on the brick pathways.

Lucy now volunteers to get herbs for dinner.

Or breakfast.

Or lunch.

People fight to take out the compost.  This is unprecedented. 

The only things that still need to be completed in this garden are the gates, the installation of the sink, and a couple of little flower beds near the barn.  

Over in the front yard, the plants are getting delivered tomorrow!  It feels like Christmas Eve.  

It will be hard to get to sleep tonight.

I love the pathways and the new flagstone patio at the top of the hill.  Even without the plants and grass, everything is already so improved.  The next two days will be big.  Plants, sod, steel edging, waterfall pump, mulch.......

You may notice the lovely green abode in the background.  As we were walking around the yard, discussing all the changes, XiXi said, "And has anyone else tried the Port-a-Pottie?  It's AWESOME!" He totally thought it was staying and was bummed to hear it's going bye-bye with the workers.

There's a stone bridge at the top of the waterfall and then you curve down two steps, and you're back on the path.  I love the twists and turns.  I never, ever would have come up with that on my own.  I wouldn't have thought beyond a single straight path along the crest of the hill.   And even that thought overwhelmed me for 9 years.  

But eyesore no more!

Hang up your stocking, Weedy Hillside.  

Tomorrow's Christmas!

A few bricks shy of a full load

Lyle informed me yesterday, when he was oh-so-close to finishing his veggie garden pathways that he was a few bricks shy.  I told him I've known that from day one.  But in light of his current dilemma, we brainstormed.  We considered pouring concrete and having our kids put in their handprints.  That would have worked and been quite sweet.  But then we looked at our large pile of brick scraps and Lyle had the brilliant idea of putting them to work in the form of a mosaic.

Our compost bins are lucky to be graced by such a masterpiece.

It makes me think that being a few bricks shy just makes life rather interesting.

P.S.  The pathways are amazing.  Photos coming soon.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

That would be the sound of big machines and delivery trucks backing up all over the property.  It's frequently joined by the Gggnnrrrr sound of bricks getting cut in the backyard--all sounds of activity and progress, so it's music to our ears.  The gravel pathways are beginning to take shape, giving us a taste of what the different areas will look like in the end. 

The lower pond is going in, with the large flat rock as the "fall rock" (I'm learning the lingo) for the waterfall.  What I find amazing is that all of this is just being dry fit and then once they have the placement right, they'll move the rocks again to install the liner and then put them back.  This crew has been so meticulous.

Next to the ponds and waterfall will be another path,

which curves around one side of the rock garden,

and then goes down the other side, enclosing that area.  

I love that so many of those rocks were already on our property.  It feels like I'm recycling......or as I overheard Cholita say to XiXi the other day when she saw him making something out of a discarded cardboard box, "XiXi, do you know what being green means?  It's not saying you're the color green, but you're reusing something, and that's a different type of green, and I'm proud of you."

  

And it doesn't get much greener than a vegetable garden, where Lyle and his crew of teenagers are rocking on the bricks.  

Truly, the little kids are loving all the activity.   I just caught XiXi in a rare serious moment.

That's more like it.

The little kids have been so helpful.  Lyle is hoping to finish with the bricks tomorrow and then needs to rent the compactor again and go over everything and then brush in the sand.  After that, he'll tackle the gates and then I think he can call it good in the veggie garden.

The pond liner is getting delivered later this afternoon and hopefully soon the Beep! Beep! Beep! Gggnnrrr chorus will be joined by the sound of trickling water!