Spring Tour - Backyard

The earth is awake and alive for Spring. Before I get carried away with photos of individual plants, I want to orient you in my yard. I love wide shots of gardens. They give you a sense the space and help you picture how the plant combinations work together. Seeing plants from afar also helps me learn about their light and moisture requirements.

So join me on the tour... first up, the backyard.


When you open the side gate and step a few feet down that gravel path, you can see espaliered figs and coral honeysuckle on the left and veggie and herb beds ahead and on the right.


When you round the corner, another veggie bed and the arbor come into view.


Turn around and you will see the side bed veggies, the beginnings of our air conditioner screen and a rain barrel.

I'd love to have a bunch of sun-loving tall flowers along this wall (maybe roses), but veggies take priority. There are plenty of flowers that I can plant in part-sun, but veggies require full sun, which is in short supply, so this spot goes to them.


The view from the back corner looking toward the house. Note the beautiful Miss Bailey sitting pretty on the patio for the tour.


Our summer relief, the arbor.


The view from the back door toward the grassy area. As you can see my two-year-old xylosma hedge was hit very hard by the freeze. I hope this was an isolated incident because I am counting on those plants create some privacy from my neighbors' yards.


Along the side of the arbor is my part-sun, full-sun and even shady flower bed (depending on where you are relative to the rose bush) that eases the transition to Bailey's grass.

One more shot of the pillared rose since this is its big season and it's about to undergo a major pruning.


Bailey's grass and my slow-to-grow foundation plants.


Around the corner on the other side of the house is No Man's Land. This area used to have a horrible slope, but we added some railroad ties and leveled the ground with mulch. We also built a second compost bin out of pallets.

Every yard is entitled to its ugly area, but I'm trying make this space pretty by tucking some shade-lovers into the pocket between the railroad ties and the fence. (We left a gap so we wouldn't trap moisture or put weight against the fence.) I'm hoping that MomMom will give me some fire spike cuttings when we visit her soon. I might paint the new compost bin too. I found a can of dark blue outdoor grade paint in the garage. We shall see...


The last stop on today's tour, a view from the compost toward the xylosma.

Don't Discount the Aucuba

Aucuba at 10:07 a.m. on February 4, 2011

Since Tuesday, my aucuba have looked like this. Goners waiting to turn to green slime. I didn't cover them because last year, my garden guru Bob Webster said that aucuba foliage doesn't need protection and that it would recover if I refrained from touching it. During the three-day freeze in 2010, the aucuba never drooped so I applied Bob's advice this year, but maybe I should have factored in the wind chill.

Aucuba at 12:10 p.m. on February 4, 2011

Ye of little faith. By 12:10 pm the freeze broke and all five plants perked up as if nothing had happened. Never doubt the guru.

I can't say the same for the firespike in the lower right of the other picture. It was a cutting from MomMom that I've been nurturing since June. I mulched it so now I'm waiting to see what spring brings.