Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Yard in April

I'm going to start with pictures of all the garden areas in the yard, and I plan to repeat the series every month or so throughout our rather short blooming season. These pictures were all taken on April 16 - some in the morning and the rest in the afternoon to avoid the shadows. The beds had all been raked by this time, but the lawn and areas around the bushes hadn't yet - it looks quite barren. There were five blooms by the 16th, but they're not noticeable in these pictures. I will add posts for April 11, 15, and 16 - the dates they appeared - after finishing this one.

Back yard: Flower beds extend around th
e entire perimeter of the fenced-in back yard except for the sidewalk and gates. As can be expected, most of the flowers will bloom in these beds. The back of the house faces east, and this first group of pictures starts looking east from the house and rotates to the south, west (showing the house), north, and back east past the garage:









There is a small area on the other side of the garage with two flowering bushes, a small strip on the other side of the fence that curves along the driveway and by the neighbor's garage. The next group of pictures is taken from the edge of the alley with the first one facing north and showing the two bushes and the rest following along the fence to the Korean lilac next to the neighbor's garage (facing south). It looks pretty bleak now, but there will be flowers along the fence and on the bushes.





There is a small garden bed on the north side of the house between the sidewalk and neighbor's fence. Here it is looking west from the back yard gate in the morning,

and looking back east to the back yard in the afternoon.

There is a semi-circular bed in front of three bushes in the corner made by the front wall and projecting porch of the house - the camera is pointing southeast.

From the public sidewalk in front you can see a small area with three shrub roses (pointing east back towards the house).

We dug - with the city's blessing - a "boulevard garden" several years ago. The first picture was taken in the morning looking west-southwest from the front yard.

The second picture was taken in the afternoon from the street looking northeast.

Finally, there are beds that extend from the front entrance steps around the south side of the house to the back yard fence.





Most of this area is shrubs, bushes, and hostas, but as the season progresses, there will be some flowers, too.