June 6 will mark the third year John and I have called our home Home. For many reasons spring is always an exciting time, but owning our own home makes this time of year all the more special. Each fall we plant a variety of bulbs in the front flower beds. Come springtime we have a more colorful and diverse bed of flowers. It is wonderful to see what all the new additions look like. We haven't quite achieved the ever-blooming flower beds that we've imagined for so many years, but we're nearly there.
This year we're able to focus our attention on the backyard, now that major improvements have been completed with the house itself. The Master Plan is to turn a good portion of the lawn into raised beds where food can be grown. Last week we planted three blueberry bushes. Plans for three additional raised beds are in the works and will be built within the next couple weeks. One bed will be for melons (watermelon and cantaloupe), another for squash (Butternut and pie pumpkins), and a third for strawberries.
The raspberry bush that we planted two years ago is doing great. It produced a few dozen raspberries last year but now that the bush has quadrupled in size, we hope to have twice as many delicious ruby fruits to nosh on this year. At the end of this month we will be adding two black raspberry plants to Wright Gardens. Tasty.
The purple lightning tree we've been longing for will soon be delivered and planted in our yard! We visited a local nursery earlier this week and selected the tree from six that were available. It is in a 15 gallon container and roughly 7 feet tall. I agree with John's assessment, it has good arms. For those of you wondering what the heck a purple lightning tree looks like, the proper name for the tree is Eastern Redbud.
In the early spring, when the tree flowers, tiny magenta flowers cover the leafless zigzag branches. The bark is dark brown, almost black, so the end result (to our eyes) looks like purple lightning. After the tree has finished flowering the tree produces medium sized heart-shaped leaves.
A new gardening helper is our landscaping cart. John isn't as thrilled about the cart as I am but I'm so happy to have it. The cart can carry up to 550 pounds and is easily steered around the yard. The sides of the cart can fold down for easier loading/unloading, and came with a snap-on liner so smaller media such as gravel, soil and mulch can be transported as well. I even plan to use this cart when there is a large haul of groceries to bring inside, or those times when I bring home two or three 40 pound bags of cat liter. Wheels! What a nifty invention.
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| Chet is curious about the cart. |
Finally, we finally have a clothesline! The posts were permanently put in the ground on Tuesday and, after giving the concrete ample time to set, I installed the cross-bars and strung them with line this afternoon. I have wanted one of these old school heavy-duty clotheslines for many years and now, just like my Great-Grandma Anna, we do. Two loads of laundry hung on the line to dry this afternoon with ample room to spare. Ah, it's the little things in life...
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| Hello, radish! |
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| A falcon flying over the house |
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| What'cha doing, Mama? |
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| Garlic Row |
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| Red Parrot tulip |
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| Yellow Parrot tulip |
