Peony May 31 2020

My favorite peony in bloom

Yard overview - May 31, 2020

I walked around our yard this morning on a nice and cool morning. I am grateful to live in this house in a peaceful neighborhood with the terrible news of riots and looting over the past nights in Minneapolis. I hope our city will have peace very soon.

There is so much to do in our yard!  I had high hopes for getting a lot done this year but with all the work needed due to coronavirus I haven't had much free time at home. However, Mike and I worked hard on pulling garlic mustard which was a very good accomplishment!  The rest of the yard needs can wait another year.

Here is the state of our yard as of May 31:

The front yard driveway garden bed:

 The driveway bed is looking good!

My favorite peony starting to bloom.  I love these flowers!

The tiny bed at the corner of the driveway:

I have hope for this peony!  For the first year it actually looks ok. I planted Bob's zinnias here. Hopefully they make it!

The front yard fruit trees:

All of the three trees we planted in 2016 are surviving. They are now past their blooming time of early May.

The corner front yard tree bed:

At least the bleeding heart and lungwort are doing well. There are a few other small plants here which are making it. I need to pull up that black plastic and plant the bed fully some year!

The air conditioner garden bed:

I need to dig up these ferns and move them to the woods to clear out space around this air conditioner.

The tiny azalea I planted here a couple years ago - it never grows as the ferns take over and shade it. I need to move those ferns!

The dog run bed and lily beds:

 The freshly mown dog run. Over on the far right corner is my newly planted Siberian iris bed, right by the large raspberry plant.  I made the mistake of transplanting these daylilies here a couple years ago - I need to dig these up and move them to the woods.

 The newly planted lily bed (planted fall 2019) with the two bush cherry plants along the left side of the dog run.

 The dog!  And the two climbing rose bushes on either side of the gate.

 A new garden bed I planted, with a peony, geranium, and veronica.

 Close up of the new lily bed.

The newest bed - I planted 3 Siberian iris plants from Mary Ann here, and some zinnia plants from Bob. In the corner is the grape vine I previously planted, and in the foreground is the raspberry plant which is doing very well.

The opposite side of the fence. I have a rhubarb plant growing there and a clump of chives which is doing well.

The old shed and entrance to the woods:

This shed needs so much work. I can't imagine we will get to repairing it this year. I would like to clear away all the weeds from this area and make a shade garden area here.  The two stakes are the tiny everblooming lilac plants I bought. They have hardly grown over the last couple years - I guess just too shady.

The bed by the sunroom stairs:

 I don't think it will look too bad here once I pull the creeping charlie. I still don't know if I will keep these old spirea bushes here. I have added the periwinkle clumps up front to hopefully make a groundcover.

The other side of the bed along the sunroom. The creeping charlie has taken over here.

The daylily bed behind the garage:

The daylily bed behind the garage. I pulled a bunch of thistles and milkweed out of here yesterday. Still much cleanup to do.

The retaining wall garden bed:

 The creeping phlox and the irises look great!

 I planted those spirea bushes too close together when I put them in. I don't know if I should dig a couple of these up now or if this is even possible at this point.

The irises really thrive here!

The garden:

 A look at the garden and the raspberry thicket.

 The wilderness section. I need to dig out all these daylilies. And tame the wild raspberries.

 Grandma's onions going strong.

 The strawberry patch.

 The actual garden plot. All of these are the Thomas' as I didn't have any time to plant anything this year, except for the one hill in the back left corner which I planted some of Caleb's giant pumpkin seeds in!  We'll see if I can grow some giant pumpkins.

 The raspberries growing into my onion patch of Grandma's onions.

 The strawberries have overtaken the asparagus bed.

Grandma's mint along the fence by the rhubarb plant. Now 5 rhubarb plants going strong!

The far back yard and woods:

 Mike mowed back here yesterday so it looks good this morning.

 I moved these daylilies from the garden out to here either last year or the year before. They are finally starting to make a nice border along the shed.

 The crevice that has formed from water runoff. We need to fill this in - probably will order dirt and rocks to fill this in this year before it gets worse.

Where the water runs into the woods.

Late May 2020

I wish I took before and after pictures of our garlic mustard clean out. That was great work. Mike put in the hours to pull the stuff from our garden.

Pictures from May 23:

Retaining wall creeping phlox just starting to bloom.

Irises just starting to bloom.

Couple tulips in the lily garden starting to bloom.

Lilies after a rain

Pictures from May 29:

Peony starting to bloom

Irises in full bloom!

More beautiful irises in the retaining wall bed - looks great!  I need to do some weeding in this bed but these have all just done their own thing this year and so far the retaining wall bed is looking good.

Bleeding heart in front yard corner tree bed is doing great

Pictures from May 30:

Peony in bloom!

The daylilies behind the garage - with many thistles invading. I worked on pulling these yesterday, but still much more weeding here to be done.

I pulled some of the thistles and milkweed here. I had let the milkweed grow but never saw any butterflies or cocoons formed on them over the last two years, so sadly it is time to pull them as they just look so weedy! I need to clean up this area. Cleaning this up from the thistles and creeping charlie will take a bit of work.