Serene Scenery Sunday - Garden Tour!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Today, I thought I'd walk you around part of our back yard gardens, to give you a bit of an update.  As Maggie has told you, Mom and Dad have been working really hard back there, with our supervision, of course.  We thought you might enjoy seeing our progress so far!  Let's head down to the back yard!

"Oooooh, there's a bit of a north breeze blowing!"

I stopped on one of the side tiers to enjoy the breeze.  Mom and Dad did a lot of work in there this year, too.  Sadly, the last of the Mohicans died, so Dad dug it out - then Mom fixed up the area, planted other stuff, and made it look nice again.  That seems to be the overall theme this year.  Anyway - let's open the gate and go on in.

Mom was going to get me to pose by one of the Rose of Sharon bushes, but ...

"SQUIRREL ALERT!"

Sorry.  There was a squirrel in Yuntao and Mei's yard.  I had to stare at it for a while.

Over by the deck, Mom's Russian Sage and Liriope area is doing really well!

"This place is buzzing with bees!"

The bees love the Russian Sage plants.  That corner used to have some Red Prince Weigela, but they died out, Dad dug them up, and Mom put the Sage, Liriope, and a white Lilac bush in.  The Lilac is less than a foot high right now (Mom is growing it from a "sucker" from a friend's garden) but it will fill in.  We don't have a name for that garden, we just call it "where the weigela used to be", but I think Mom and Dad should call it the Bee Garden, given all the activity there!  We'd best move on, before I disturb the bees' serenity!

Here's the upper corner of the back yard!  This is one of our favorite places.  It's totally serene in here!

"I could sit here and solve all the world's proble---wait.  What's that in Mohammad's yard?"

Sorry.  Another squirrel alert.  Anyway, see up behind me in that picture (above)?  Beyond the fence are a couple tiers on the south side.  Back in November, we showed you some guys removing a pine tree from the middle tier. Dad and Mom worked really hard up there afterwards, then in the Spring, Mom put in a bunch of plants to attract butterflies!  We call that the Butterfly Garden.  (We showed you the start of that garden at this link!)  Here's a shot of Maggie up in the front garden, looking down on it!

"There's the Butterfly Garden, everyone!"

Mom had some nice, healthy-looking Butterfly Weed growing where you see just sort of sticks in that shot - but caterpillars ate them, then turned into butterflies!  ...or something like that.  Anyway, Mom is thrilled, because that's what that garden is for and we have a whole bunch of Monarch butterflies hanging around our house now!

Back to the back yard!

The same guys who took out the pine came back last month and took out our Elm tree.  Remember that?  Just to review ... when they got here, the area looked like this:

Before Elm removal

When they left, that area looked like this:

After Elm removal

And now? Check it out:

Ready for planting!

Mom took all three of those shots from the deck.  Let's get closer!  After Dad dug out the overgrown, half-dead bushes, he and Mom worked like crazy smoothing it all out.  Apparently, there's a lot more to it than that, but for the sake of brevity, we'll go with that.  Then Dad carried all these paving stones down from the front and Mom surrounded the new garden with them and built a little pathway!

Me, not walking on the paver pathway

Dad also hauled a bunch of mulch down the hill and Mom spread it in the area.  I left out the part where they raked out all the river rock and moved it, but that part wasn't really very serene.  Let's move on!

Here I am, in front of the new Wildflower Garden!

"Hey!  Hey, Mohammad!  There's a squirrel in your yard!"

Sorry.  I got distracted again.  The neighbor was out.  While Mom waved to him, I sent him a mind-meld message regarding an intruder.  Anyway, Mom already planted three Cheyenne Spirit Coneflowers in there; more plants are on order and coming soon.  It will be a Wildflower Garden!  Yet another neighbor, Jim, gave Mom a bunch of sedum cuttings and they'll be going in there and in the Butterfly Garden, too!

Speaking of sedum ... our Purple Emperor Sedum are HUGE this year!  Check this out:

"Can you ... sedum behind me?"

I wasn't really frowning; the sun was really bright!

One more pose by the gate ...

"Time to head inside and get some water!"

... and I think this garden tour is a wrap! I hope our gardens helped you feel nice and serene! Have a lovely Sunday!

Cammie!