The Yard

I love this time of year. I love watching my perennial flowers start to come up, and I love how green everything is. We've been talking over the last couple of years about cleaning up the back part of the yard, and this year we decided to make it happen. I'm giving Bruce all of the credit, though, because he did most of the work. I try to be supportive, and helped with raking of dirt and mulch, but honestly, I don't know how he could just keep going, with all the lifting and bending for hours at a time that he did. It was daunting to see 180 bags of mulch, and 75 bags of dirt delivered to the driveway (from Menards), and then it all had to be moved to the backyard to be dumped and raked over. Also, as our yard has become shadier over the years, the grass has died away, so Bruce dumped dirt and seeded most of the back yard. We were our usual frugal selves with the process. We were able to split up the huge hosta growing along the front walk and garage side of the driveway, and ended up with 21 healthy plants to use. The plan is to dig up three pine trees from up north, to plant behind the hosta. Four lilac bushes, and four fire and ice hydrangias were bought to add color. and the bleeding heart plant that's been there for years was pruned, and thankfully looks like it'll survive!

But one of the most exciting things to see, is the little chickadee family that's moved into the new bird house outside the living room window! They don't seem to mind the cats or activity going on in the porch, either. I can hardly wait to see the babies!