Backyard Finale

 Thank you to everyone who gathered today to celebrate the end of a long tradition. Now looking forward to new beginnings.

Annual peony post

One of the interesting things with keeping the blog is tracking the posts from year to year. For example, last year the peony post was 2 weeks earlier than this year. A demonstration of the difference in each year's weather.

This year Spring has been cool and wet so the blooming flowers are later than last year's hot and dry Spring.

There is a new peony in the garden this year. I don't know where it came from and there are only two stems and each has a pink-toned blossom of the single type peony. Pretty crazy.

Miss America

One of the old fashioned red peony that came with the house

Miss America

A pink sngle type variety. This one just showed up this year

One of the red peonies that came with the house.

Burr Oak at 10 years

The Burr Oak has grown so much that I had to prune off several very large branches. It is exciting to see the backyard changing because the oak tree is getting so tall and broad.

The oak tree is now 10 years old which means the backyard patio project was done 10 years ago.

Ten years ago I was working for IBM and travelling nearly every week. Peonies were blooming this week in June 2019. This year the peonies are close but at least another week before full on.

Check out the Burr Oak from 2011 and from 2013 and when first planted in 2009.

Beauty to counter so much ugly

There has been so much ugliness in the news this week. I wanted to share some of the beauty in my backyard.

Most of these are repeats from years past. That is the beauty of a perennial garden.

I call this my abstract art. These are a type of geranium.

Coleus in the copper tub with morning glories climbing trellis made from lilac suckers.

Star Tiger Lily

Irma's geranium

Just one of the other geranium pots

Spring pots

Went on annual plant shopping excursion to Malmborg's with Martha and Kelly. Decided I would do my pots up this year.

Apple tree pruning

Finally got around to pruning the backyard apple tree. I don't remember if I've ever done a major pruning.

Using old running medals as wind chimes and to try to keep the birds away.

Before

Trimmings

After

A Sure Sign of Winter Coming

When I finally bring the geraniums in means there is no turning back. I won't leave them with their flowers but they just looked so nice.

I've been successfully over wintering these particular geraniums for several years now. I rescued the two pink ones from my neighbor Irma's front steps after she died. She is the one who told me about keeping them over the winter. The people who bought her house have still to this day never removed the dead marigolds that the realtor planted. It has been 10 years maybe!

Annual Apple Fest

The weather wasn't great but the rain held off for the most part. Moved into the garage to keep people and food dry. I am thankful for good friends and neighbors. Credit to Kelly for the photos but more importantly being such a great friend helping me out.

Moved into the garage

Uno wanted to see what was going on

Didn't let the weather dampen the fun

Neighbors

Serious conversation

Goofy conversation

Friends

Super friend, Kelly.

Being goofy post-fest

Simple apple pie

New garage door

New door

I have gone several years with a door to my garage that doesn't lock and doesn't even latch. I have never had anything stolen but there have been so many posts on the NextDoor website where people have had their garages and cars broken into that I thought it was time to replace the door.

It wasn't just the door but the jam was also messed up. I found a complete exterior door at the Habitat For Humanity's ReStoreIt store. It was the correct size and opened the correct way. It only cost $45!

The locking door knob and dead bolt cost more than the door. The project came together without too much hassle ... which is a miracle at this place.

Old door

While I was working in the backyard, I repaired a couple of sections of the patio (not pictured) and replaced the pressure-treated wood mini-retaining wall with railroad ties that I found for free on the NextDoor website.

Garden photos

Gas plant that I stole from the neighbor's house a long time ago.

Miss America

One of the red ones that came with the house.

A light pink one that came with the house.

Wintered-over geraniums

I am late getting the wintered-over geraniums outside. For several years I have put the geraniums, pots and all, in the basement over the winter. It has been very successful.

In the spring I normally put the pots on the porch for a few days or a week to acclimate the plants. This year because it is so late, I'm just going to put them outside though they will be in the shade of the oak tree.

Will have to see if they make it this year. Also, I wintered-over the calla lilies that Martha gave me. They are sprouting so have my fingers crossed that that experiment worked.

Tree peony

The tree peony has started to bloom. I think I need to move this thing. It is getting rather large.

My odd azalea plants

My two azaleas are crazy beautiful again this year. But why do they never grow. They have been this size ever since I got them years and years ago.
The peach colored one is barely 12" tall. The pink one is maybe 2' tall.

Water feature back up and running

Photo is at an odd angle but the water feature is back up and running for the season.

A lot more work this year to get it going. The basin needed to be re-balanced. Getting it out was the easy part. The patio stones around the edge needed to be reset. That was the difficult part.

There is uneven settling of the stones and some of them are splitting. I'm not surprised as I didn't have the ability to set the stones in a layer of sand when I installed the patio some years ago.

Still need to grout the stones and clean up the river rock that cover the basin lid.

Hopefully the birds