Friday, February 23, 2007

The garden

This year will be the year our garden really becomes what it should be. We have been slowly figuring out landscaping ideas, plant ideas, etc. For the past 3 years, we have successfully grown veggies in the summer time. Our three veggie beds and numerous pots give us a harvest of zucchini, lettuce, spinach, green onions, sugar snap peas, carrots, sweet peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, strawberries, blueberries, basil, oregano, mint, and chamomile-some years we add in more herbs.

The sun has been teasing us lately. It's still quite cold in the Pacific Northwest, but many of my winter bulbs have bloomed. The crocus and daffodils are showing their colors. The bluebells are almost there. The winter heather is covered in pink flowers and I recently added some perennials. I also made up some hanging baskets with pansies. I love pansies. They are easy to care for and give you bloom after bloom for months! I can't have as many flowers out front as I did last year because a little deer found my yard and ate most of my flowers-so most of the color right now is in the backyard.

Here are some photos:

The backdoor and patio-the breakfast nook is in the window to the right of the door and the mudroom/laundry room is in the window to the left. (The door and screen door will be replaced this Spring with a bungalow-style wood door and screen):
Backdoor

Backdoor

Backyard patio

Backyard patio

Flower beds:
Spring is almost here!

Flower Bed

The flower bed on the north side of the house-it sees very little sunlight, so shade loving ground cover and bulbs are going to do excellent here (the daffodils are almost ready to bloom!):
Shade flower bed

One of the hanging baskets on the front porch:
Flower Basket

Strawberry and Blueberry plants soaking up the sun in the backyard:
Berries!

I am so ready for summertime!