The Friday Friends Big Backyard

A winter day?

2012-01-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

It rained all night long. It's January--that was supposed to be snow. It's just really weird

I have moss growing on my tree. In January. And I live in the desert. Okay, the high DRY desert. We don't get green stuff growing on our trees usually.

And I'm a bad apple, as I left some on my tree last fall.... and the birds didn't even get them all.

I didn't really do a good garden/yard clean up either..... but heck, it's warm enough--I can get out there this afternoon and pull weeds, etc.
I really need to prune some bushes this spring.

outside my windows

2012-01-16T16:01:00.000-08:00

I used to take pictures of my yard, post them, and called the weekly (almost) post, "What's Outside My Kitchen Window."
I had some friends who would show me what was outside their windows too.
If I had been on the ball, I could have made it into a blog hop or something, but I didn't, which is probably just as well, since I don't tend to stick to things.

It has been so warm this winter, and we've had no moisture or snow whatsoever .....until this morning, so once again I took pictures of 'what's outside my windows.
The Handyman commented on my pictures, "are those from today?"
me, "yes"
Handyman, "well, its hard to tell, you take pictures every time it snows and they all look the same.   For the past 15 years."It does seem I take pictures of the same things all the time.....

Pictures of what's outside my windows.
I don't have that many exciting garden happenings in the winter I guess.

(looking at these pictures of my backyard, I can tell that I never really winterized.   I should get out and do that once the snow leaves---which it will soon enough, we've had a very dry winter)

Family room:

kitchen:

dining room:

Living room:

No DirecTV for me

2011-09-15T11:17:00.000-07:00

**an update**
The senior tech came and said that we can get the satillite connection off to the side of our house.
So...disregard anything you are about to read.

We have too many trees!

That's what the DirecTV man said when he came to install our satellite yesterday.

Too many trees and we can't get a signal.

I wanted to cry.

Okay, not really cry--that would have been dumb (crying over tv)

But, I was really disappointed for a short while.

I want HDTV. High Def.

I don't care about a gazillion channels....I just want them to look really good when I do watch them.

Our house sits facing north.

The satellites are in the south.

Our house is not at an angle at all. It sits directly north and the trees are directly south-- in the way.

On one hand I'm okay with it. I don't want to be tied to my TV.

Neither does the Handyman.( But he was looking forward to the free season of the NFL package.)

We don't want to be constant TV watchers.

On the other hand....ARE YOU FRICKING SERIOUS???!!

WE CAN'T GET DIRECTV!!

Everyone around us has satellite TV!!

I live in the high desert...I'm NOT cutting down a tree.

**for the sake of full disclosure, the TV man was very nice. I might not have liked what he had to say, but he also said, he didn't want to lock us into a contract and then we couldn't get most of the channels.

Fair enough.

They are going to send out a 2nd opinion man tho.

**and--my trees look very overgrown, as does everything in my backyard. It's been a busy and hectic summer.

River Rafting with my parents (and all their friends)

Trips up north.

Trips to the cabin.

Trips to California.

Ugh.

This isn't even pretty anymore.

I'm still not cutting them down.

This is 'the' tree, that they can't get around.

I just threw these in, because I was walking by...

dying sunflowers.

And the two big trees come together in the middle almost.

and there is that little hill or inlcine they are up on, so they end up being higher than my house.

HELP! It's really overgrown.
I need to trim and prune and clean things up.

Taken from 'up on the hill'

oh..and the Handyman blows the leaves down from the rocks and rock garden each week.

Silly Poplar trees lose leaves all year it seems.

Wait until they REALLY start falling!!

I have Japanese lanterns hanging in a tree.

They look pretty at night.

This is 'the' tree again. Taken from up on the hill.

It has a horrible, big, fat trunk.

and you can't really see....but I have some chairs there, with alittle flower pot and I sit there and read sometimes.

This is pretty much my view, looking down into the yard, when I am reading up there.

It's hard to see....but there sits the Handyman at the patio table, reading his book.

Even at the tip top of our roof, the satellite cannot get a signal thru the trees.!

I wonder what the 2nd opinion man is going to say?

It's about time!

2011-06-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

Finally! Warm weather ... or... How we spent our Father's Day.

The thing about warm weather in Northern Nevada is, that it hits fast and hard.
We had snow on June 3rd. It was kind of a freak thing, but we had a really, really wet and cold spring.
It's been hard on everyone.....(farmers, ranchers, lumber yards, nurseries, and most of all ME!!)
And today it is 90 degrees.

I've neglected the Big Backyard Blog for quite some time. (remember when I was going to take a picture a week to show how my yard changes? I gave up on that since everything was so brown and awful looking for so long) But all of the sudden everything in the High Desert is green again, so.... time to garden while we can.

The Handyman was putting in an arbor for me. He will not be happy that I'm posting pictures of him working in the yard. He doesn't look too happy, does he?
This is/was the entrance to my vegetable garden of past years, but sadly we are not doing veggies this year. A few tomato plants is all. And some Herbs.
This spot gets too much shade now and it is the middle of June...our growing season is less than 90 days at this point, so.... ?? It's sad tho.

The view from where I sat...
towards the Handyman:

I planted some honeysuckle by it so it will grow and tail up and over the arbor someday.

looking up the yard...the hill? Whatever you want to call my backyard...I just turned and was looking at our yard from a different perspective.
Up the hill:

Then I needed a couple of rose bushes planted along the fence, but we have horrible roots all over the yard, from the Poplar Trees. The roots are so bad, the Handyman had to take an axe to them. No worries....that won't kill the Poplars.

We lost at tree last year in this spot, so it looks strange and odd and sad to us. Hey...maybe it's the roots from the old locust tree.

He has an axe in his hand...it's just so fast, you can't see it.

My fear is that the axe blade will fly off and embed itself into my skull. You can breath a sigh of relief tho...it didn't happen. This time.

It's a good thing too, because I want to link this to Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage. , Garden Tuesday at Sidewalk Shoes and Blooming Tuesday at MsGreen "thumb".

I hate Old Man Winter.

2011-03-21T12:45:00.000-07:00

The first full day of spring.

Old Man Winter cannot let go.

He's like an old man hanging on, not wanting to let youth (spring) take over.

I hate Old Man Winter.

Oh sure, at first he woos you and seduces you with his pristine demeanor and it's quite exciting. There are sparkles and bells and trees with lights. Sleigh rides and parties with spiked hot chocolate. Silver and tinsel and grand music.

Laughter and joy and smiles.

He treats you to good food and lots of it.

But then soon....he turns a cold shoulder on you. His moods are dark and bone chilling cold. He keeps you away from friends by demanding that you stay inside. Because of him, you are isolated.

He freezes your toes and sometimes he can be said to abuse you--I mean, you did slip on that ice at Walmart, didn't you?

Suddenly he begins to run hot and cold...he's so unpredictable. From one day to the next you don't know what mood he will take.

Just when you think it's safe to go outside again, he hits you hard with the wind and rain and the sleet and yes....snow.

He shows his power over you!

He's not quite ready to give you up.

I hate him. But I used to love him. And if he comes around again in say, 9 months, I'll probably be delighted to see him again.

Absence does make the heart grow fonder.... so hurry up and leave Old Man Winter!!!

The Big Backyard (and front yard) today:

Right outside my patio door. There is a rake lying out there in the yard. And an upside down lawn chair (you can just see the feet). We had had a wind storm a few days ago.

From my front porch. Yesterday we had no snow in the yard!

And from my front porch, the other direction.

From my dining room window: SNOW!

And from my other dining room window---this is the garden area on the side yard. You can see my little square foot garden out there---if you can get past the rooster head.

The Square foot garden just waiting patiently for

Old Man Winter to go the hell away!!

Week 5--icicles

2011-02-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

We were hit by a lot more snow on Friday night, but by Sunday afternoon, the temps began to rise, the sun was out and the melting had begun.

I tried to capture the icicles on my snowball bush, right outside the dining room window. I finally had to open it to get a better picture.

I hope spring comes fast!

Week 4 (week 3 was a bi-week)

2011-02-20T15:22:00.000-08:00

Week 3 was a bi, because it looked exactly the same as week 2.

(and I forgot to take a picture on week 3)

This is it today....or yesterday, Saturday, Feb.19th.

Snow.

My friend, Debbie and her husband Charlie, are friends with the people who used to live in my house. (We've lived here for almost 15 years) but their friends Sarah and Roger lived here first and put the yard in. They planted all the trees in the back...the ones which are huge now.

Debbie and Charlie had dinner with Roger and Sarah (who have moved to another state) a couple of weeks ago, and they asked about the house. They asked specifically about the yard and if the trees survived. We do live in the desert, so trees are like gold to us all.

While Roger and Sarah did plant all the trees around the perimeter, we planted the trees in the grass area and lot of bushes and plants and flowers. It used to look a lot more like the desert, but we've worked really hard these past 15 years to make it seem as if our backyard isn't in the middle of the desert.

I was thinking of getting Sarah's e-mail address and sending them some pictures of the yard, or this link.

But then I thought....well, CRAP this is ugly in the winter.

So I am going to do some blatant self-promotion here and insert a few pictures of my yard which I took this past summer.

These pics are for Sarah and Roger--to show them that the yard they worked so hard to get started was not in vain.

So you all have to turn away now---these are just for Roger and Sarah Johnson.

Roger and Sarah, If the big trees ever die, so will I!!! I love them, and I love the shade they give. I love having a green yard in the middle of the sage brush.

The lilac bushes are huge now. We've done a few different things on the side yard....dog pen, vegetable garden? It's changed over the years.

(you can just scroll down and down to see pictures of the side yard, etc)

Oh...and we put a cover on the patio.

Which has Virginia Creeper growing all over it. Some people like Virginia Creeper, some people don't. I like it--its green and it has brought a flock of Flickers to it this past fall--I'm for anything that brings unique birds to my backyard.

September 11th, 2010

I had a garden party brunch and I took these before the ladies got here.

10:00 a.m.

Week 2

2011-02-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

As the Handymand has informed me.....the backyard can get pretty boring, when you look at picture after picture after picture.

Oh well....I don't know what to tell you.

Saturday, Feb. 5th.

Gray skies.

The lawn/yard still looks like crap!!

We're not very pretty in our wintery coat.

a transformation 2011--the beginning

2011-01-29T11:49:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by those time-lapsed film segments, when it showed something changing over a period of time.
So, I think I'll try, TRY to do that with photos of my yard this year. I'll take pictures of my yard each week, standing in the exact same place and then we'll see how it transforms.

Am I embarrassed by how my yard looks right now? Well, kind of--yes. We had all the leaves raked up before the first snowfall, (and we do get lots of snow and below freezing temps, so our yards here in Northern Nevada look all brown and dead) but our weather has been unseasonably warm, so the Handyman got out and blew all the dead leaves --the ones that had fallen after our big pick up of 20 garden bags of leaves. Did you not notice our big trees? they drop lots of leaves, so there is always some leftover). But he blows them out of the rocks and LEAVES them (no pun intended) on the lawn.

He says he intends to rake them up this afternoon. I am betting on a big wind storm to blow them right back up against the fence.
On the other hand, at least he is getting of his rear-end and doing something, unlike myself who sits on her rear-end during the winter. ~sigh~

Anyway..... my big backyard, the end of January 2011.

and my cat, Izzy, who is getting ready to come weave herself between my legs. She will be the death of me one morning---the big trip and fall and knock myself in my head, from her weaving.

I sometimes fell my pictures in the Big Backyard Blog are redundant.

But...it's my backyard, so, things are pretty much the same as last year.

Who am I trying to impress?

On a sad note, we will probably have to take out another tree this year.

Bees

2010-08-22T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have ignored my garden blog all summer. And I have ignored my garden. It makes me sad to go look at my veggies all gone to seed. At leas the lettuce and radishes have gone to seed, I think I can salvage the rest...but no peeking until I do! ~grins~

The Handyman took out our dead Mountain Ash this afternoon. It looks funny to me with out a "tall" tree there, even tho ours was dead.
Later this fall, we'll probably transplant our Hawthorne tree to that space. Or next spring. The Hawthorne is in a bad place and will soon be taken over by our Mulberry tree. It needs a new home.

So....a few random pictures of getting the Mountain Ash out of there, and then, some bees on the Hollyhocks.

Trees

2010-08-09T16:00:00.000-07:00

We've had bad luck with our trees this year. Earlier this spring the Handyman cut down our cherry tree. We knew it was coming. Every year for the past couple of years, we've had some branches die off. So that was to be expected.

What was not was our Mountain Ash. And our Blue Spruce (okay, we live in the desert, so maybe), and I tried to ignore our Purple Globe Locust tree....tried to ignore it as we lost limb by limb by limb in wind storms.

Can you see our little Mountain Ash skeleton?

I love a Mountain Ash tree, but probably should have been concerned since it wasn't a "Desert" Ash. I have high hopes tho. I don't want my backyard to look like the desert--even tho I love the desert. I want it to look as green as it can.

Our dead---even tho the Handymany won't admit it--Blue Spruce tree.

He even wastes water on it...thinking it will come back.

The Locust tree....it was diseased. But at one time it had been a beautiful full tree that shaded AND was a barrier between our very close neighbors. Now, we have a broken stump and it is so sad.

The Handyman is cutting it down after it fell.

As I said, during a few previous wind storms, we had lost parts of the tree, but yesterday afternoon, I was upstairs (yes, during another wind/thunder storm) and I kept hearing something thumping the side of the house. I looked at my bedroom window and there was a tree...where a tree shouldn't have been. Darn it anyway!

Hard to see....but there is a broken off tree trunk there.

A different view. We still have the one little limb there, but we will dig this all up next weekend.

Another look.

It was really diseased.... see the holes?

More holes---I wonder what it was? We should probably have our friends, the tree sprayers come check it out.

And look and see all the "sawdust" around the trunk? Something has been boring into it for quite sometime.

When it's all said and done, I really like summer storms. I'm weird like that.

But it's funny, while the wind took down our tree, it really didn't mess much with my patio table and placemats, Or the newspaper. Now that's odd.

What's been going on?

2010-07-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

I am so behind.... I haven't kept up very good with my backyard blog this year. Nor my backyard for that matter. Why?

Because of these cute little guys.....whom I'd much rather spend some time with than stupid old weeds in my rock garden. Or working on a vegetable garden.

I need to weed. I don't care.

I do have pictures tho, of our project. We had to replace part of our fence. And once we removed it, we took out the old dog house. Because we no longer have a dog. It was sad to see it go

We really need to cut down this Blue Spruce tree. The Handyman keeps wasting water on it, thinking it will "come back", but it's dead.

We live in the desert. Pine trees do not do well. We better accept it.

These pics were taken a few weeks ago, my garden is much bigger and more green now. I even have corn sprouting.

Hopefully I will be more up to date with blog posts by this weekend.

What's Outside My Kitchen Window?

2010-06-23T10:39:00.000-07:00

Happenings in the big backyard this week.

All my veggies have sprouted and I have apples on the apple tree.

The Handyman had to chop down a cherry tree---but I didnt' get any pictures of that.

I just walked around and took pictures of "stuff"

I couple of years ago, I asked the Handyman to put up a ledge or shelf on our fence so that I could hang watering cans from it. I had this idea of collecting antique watering cans...

I guess I need to "dead head" some flowers.

Not even a good shot of a cobweb.

But I did get a bee.

I'm a bit concerned about our grapevine this year. It's not doing so well, as you can tell by all the vine without grape leaves.

And another bee.

A flower pot on my patio table.

I wish there were more time to lay in the hammock and read.

A Bird on the fence.

A red-headed house finch on the fence.

Two birds...waiting for their turn at the drinking fountain.

Sunday

2010-06-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

We had a very productive Sunday.

First, we shampooed are carpets..... no more "gray" knees for our grandbabies.

(talk about horrifying....what a way to find out how dirty your carpets are. LOL )

After that we worked in the yard.

This little flower bed is the only one I can never get "just right".

It's up against the house. We used to have rose bushes and shrubs, but one of our dogs chewed everything to bits. He was our son's dog and we havent' had him for quite some time, but I just can't decide what to do with this bed. I still blame the dog.

The Handyman....figuring out how to get water to my garden (so that I dont' have to drag a sprinkler)

I put a couple of Hens and Chicks in this planter on my patio. I have so many hens and chicks I don't know what to do.

The small garden again. I will use the chain link fence to train my squash to go up.

It says we can do that in the "Square Foot Gardening" book.

Ta Da!!

Somethings growing!

I do have radishes coming up.

I have to get out there with my tweezer to thin them.

The Handyman has installed a "drip" system so that I don't have to hand water all my hanging pots. But he discovered a leak. It was spraying all over!

We also have a "mister" for when it gets really hot.

Which is only a few times a year. We live in "northern" Nevada and we are high...about 4000 feet.

But the mister is really nice those couple of bbq's we have when it is hot.

The Handyman also had to cut down a dead cherry tree -- but I didn't get a picture of that.

This is Ginger. Our very aggressive Hummingbird.

She HATES for us to be out on our patio.

And that's where we like to have our supper all summer long.

We are not bothered by bugs much in Nevada, but an angry mama hummingbird?

Watch Out!

My son, the first time he went outside, came back in and said, "a giant mosquito" was after him.

We have since come to a wary acceptance.... from the hummingbird, not my son.

She'll let us be out there, but we better not make any sudden moves.

Getting Ready for the Garden

2010-06-06T22:04:00.000-07:00

Finally there was some good weather in Northern Nevada.

So, we began our garden.

First I planted some flowers (I have way too many "pots" to plant, so I'm trying to but back this year)

The one tho, sits beside a garden swing. One must have flowers beside the garden swing.

I planted a few flowers in my rock garden.... I don't want too many, but it's nice to have some color in there.

Then we made our way to the vegetable garden....

I planted herbs in this topsy-turvy way. The Handyman will put a drip system in for me.... it's kind of self watering...the pots will drip down from the top to the bottom into each other.

This looks kind of pitiful....but we put brackets on the fence to hang our tomato plants.

More tomatoes---sharing a barrell with some volunteer lettuce.

(I'll have to take that out)

Everything looks so dry and dusty......

......hmmmm. It's Nevada.

The Handyman is going to put in a good watering system for the veggies.

It'll green up ...I promise. We are't quite done... just working on getting the dirt ready and doing a bit of planting.

We end our day playing with the grandbabies.

What's Outside My Kitchen Window

2010-05-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

A week in the life of our backyard.

What a week we've had!!

First, we thought spring was here.

I even had a daffodil. One. One daffodil.

It is Northern Nevada, the high desert.... I will have more daffodills the middle of May.

But for now, I am very excited to have one.

And a robin in the tree.

Robins are a sure sign of spring around here.

Believe it or not, I can see buds on this tree!

And back to Mr. Robin.

He was having fun looking for stuff for his nest.

On Sunday, it was so nice and warm, the Handyman couldn't help but sit out in the yard and read a magazine.

That first hint of sunshine, spring, warmth, well, we just feel the need to bask in it.

(I guess. Can you call sitting out there with a long sleeved shirt, a gun magazine and a beer, basking?)

That was Sunday. On Tuesday, we had the biggest wind storm I can remember.

The nightly news said that if it had been a tropic system, it would have been considered a level 3 hurricane. We had 80 mile an hour winds. And we lost part of our roof. And so now yay...we get to spend our savings on a new roof. I'm sure the insurance companies awere bombarded on Wed morning.

We drove around during our wind storm, so I could take pictures.

(oh....and I took a lot)

Fences down, trees down, dust bowls, tumbleweeds.

City Crews cleaning up the next morning.

Check out all those tumbleweeds along the fence line.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, rain, snow and hail came.

Notice the two doves in our tree? They are all hunkered down trying to stay warm.

It was FREEZING.

(we don't really like the doves, as they are kind of an annoying bird, but they sure were cold. I felt kind of bad for them.)

And then later.... Wed. early evening, we had snow.

Sunday, warm sunshine.... Wed snow.

Ahhhhh....spring in Northern Nevada.

Outside my Kitchen Window.

What's Outside My Kitchen Window--QUAIL

2010-04-07T15:01:00.000-07:00

It might not look like it, but in a couple of months, this will all be green.

As green as the high desert can get that is.

outside my "dining" room window

This morning while having coffee, I noticed quail in the backyard, I tried to get some pictures, but they are quite skittish....and they also blend into the rock garden.

A family of Quail running across the back of my yard...they didn't like me out there watching them.

(and we had a windstorm, which left branches in the rock garden and Mr. Green Frog lying amidst the ruins. I'll get out there and clean it up soon... we had snow 3 days ago!)

And the actual view from my Kitchen Window

Irises are coming up

2010-04-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

My tub of iris looks like this

I guess this is what I need to do!

Marching Out Like a Lion!

2010-03-31T10:37:00.000-07:00

I have a cooking blog (which I have lately been incorporating my book loving side into), on which last year, I posted "What's Outside My Kitchen Window" every Wednesday. (or I tried to do it every Wednesday...it got a little boring looking out my window week after week, after week, so I skipped a few), but today I posted about it again....starting off spring 2010 right!

Only look what our spring brought today.....

March went out like a lion!

It is time for me to map out my garden. Last year I did a "square foot" garden and was so excited. I asked my husband to make individual "cubbies" if you will, instead of just an overlay to the "square foots"
see here.

Yes, I know it was wrong, but it worked.

My father in law, thinks he is very funny, and sent me a newspaper article the other day, with directions on the "right" way to do a square-foot garden. Smart Alec!!
He loves his square-foot gardens and has always had good luck with them.
I plan to expand to two this year...and a compost pile!

And here is what it looks like outside my kitchen window this week.

On Sunday, the Handyman cleaned up the patio, go our patio furniture out and set up and also fertilized the yard.

On Monday I thought I should go take some pictures of my crocus that are poking thru the earth. But I didn't get around to it.

On Tuesday, we had the wind storm to beat all wind storms.

Lawn chairs upended.

Watering cans blown off their hooks!

Bird feeders turned sideways

(empty, yes, I know....poor birds)

And the patio, which the Handyman had just cleaned?

Scattered with leaves and debris...and signs blown off our fence.

And then today, Wednesday, What's outside my kitchen window?

Snow.

Spring cleaning

2010-03-21T21:00:00.000-07:00

Spring Cleaning!

With help from our free laborer---our grandson, Camron.

For some reason he thinks this is fun.

We cleaned and moved the dog pen area. (We lost poor old Monroe this winter), so now the garden area will be enlarged. It looks funny to me.

Because last year, it looked like this..click here.

I am going to try to have a compost pile this year. Or... I'm going to look into it anyway.

This new look in the side yard, is forgien to me. I have to plan out my garden and decide what I'm going to do now.

It's a whole new lay-out.

Lonesome Winter

2010-01-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

Winter is a lonely place. I think it can be sometimes anyway.....

It's a bit melancholy.

Some long overdue scenes from my backyard.

Quail. They are fat birds!

Just for the record, our bassett hound, Monroe died a few days after Christmas.

Even tho we always have Quail come to visit our yard, we think there might be more this year.

Poor old Monroe scared them away.

Sunrise in the Stone Backyard.

It's how the hanyman sees to BBQ in the winter.....the bare lightbulb. And then, sunlight behind the empty hummingbird feeder.

And beneath those pictures, just a lilac branch. Bare, wintery, barron.

A lone hen with a chick!

some "found" bottles in a flower bed

(old clorox bottles found in the desert)

A leftover apple....for the birds

Okay, so we had a few leftover apples on the tree.

Izzy the cat. She waits paitently for spring.

Plus she is very sad lately....she misses Monroe.

What's outside my kitchen window?

2009-11-12T10:16:00.000-08:00

I havent' even got all my "fall" yardwork done!!

Snow. It was falling softly and silently.

A long time gone

2009-11-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

So much time has passed since I've updated my Big Backyard.

I would feel the quilt if I thought anyone paid attention... anyone but my family from out of town. My father-in-law, Phil, especially. He got a kick out of my Square Foot Garden and how I did it.
He is an "old-hand" at square foot gardening.
Since July, we've had another grandbaby, gone to a family wedding, I did a 3day-60mile walk for breast cancer in Seattle.....
....so, I did miss some great summer photos, but, we'll begin again. (and we'll pretend today isn't November 12th, but sometime mid-October, when these pictures were taken)
Fall is coming in the Nevada Big Backyard. The Handyman is contemplating all the piles of leaves he'll have to gather. The Leadership Club at the High School is doing leaf raking for a donation, as their project. I asked him about calling them, and he said, NO, he can do his own leaves.

Ah... a few little leaves on the ground. It's not so bad.... but look again! Look what waits overhead for the Handyman!

Trusty Old Monroe!!

(he'll be as famous as Charlie one day)

So, see? A little bit of raking and the yard is as good as new.

The colder weather makes the concord grapes GOOD!!

Izzy waits for some attention....on the potting table.

And then..... we make our way to the side yard...the square foot garden.

It's mid-October for heaven's sake! I gave up watering when I went to Arizona 10 days ago.

Besides, the autumn leaves are falling....

....and falling. The Handyman has more leaves to rake now.

But once again he gets the job done!! Well done Handyman!!

(except you might want to pick up the empty leaf/garbage can)

OH NO! How does this happen. More leaves.

And more leaves and more leaves!

The Handyman has a helper!

Or...does he?

Our 2 year old granddaughter, visiting from Virginia, helps Granddad in the yard.

(for some reason Granddad comes out Bop-ah-dad)

Granddad gives up!!

Leaves can be raked tomorrow!

Random Photos of the Big Backyard

2009-07-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Just random pictures that are RECENT of my backyard and garden.
No explanation is needed....right?

Take a pictoral tour of **** Mt. Tobin Place, our home, where the birds await to sing you a song as you walk along.
(LOL the birds sat on the street sign while I went home and got my camera and walked back down to get their picture. I imagine them following me and singing....zippidee do daa, zippidee aaay, my oh my what a wonderful day........ )

Just back

2009-07-26T16:42:00.000-07:00

I've been back from CT for a couple of weeks now....and haven't updated the "garden" blog.
When I first got back....The Handy-Man was putting in these sprayer sprinklers in our "Rock Garden". It has been so hot....over 100 for a couple of weeks, and the rock garden was looking very dry. Very dry.
So, here are the three sprayers he put in.....
(can you see it below the old canteen we found in the desert )

Hopefully, this will keep the plants moister. We are so dry here in Nevada...no humidity at all, so everything dries out right after it's been watered.

Below is the barrel I have my tomato plants in. They have taken off and are hanging over the walkway. Pay no attention to the mess behind the air-conditioner. It's the 'side" of the house.

I have tomatoes on the vine! Finally. We are a little slow here in NV. At the farmers market we have herbs and some early things like radishes and beets.

I have lettuce and peas in the other barrels.

And my Tospy Turvy is doing okay. I have little cherry tomatoes... a lot of them.

My squash and cucumber plants.

The Square Foot Garden!! With radishes that have gone to seed.

The cherry tomatoes in the Topsy Turvy

We'll move to the other side of the yard to the grape vine.

The Apple Tree has apples. I can't wait for homemade applesauce.

The Rock Garden from the Grape Vine side of the yard.

Rich hadn't washed my car the whole time I was gone....

rain rain, go away

2009-06-19T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's still raining.

I have a confession to make: I like it.

It NEVER rains here. And it's making everything so green and pretty. If anyone from Winnemucca reads that sentence, I will probably be run out of town. Everyone wants the rain to STOP.

I don't think Izzy cares if it rains or not....she just curls up and sleeps.

I haven't had to water my plants tho. So, that's a good thing. We haven't turned on our air conditioner either, so more of a good thing.

There is just one thing I've found since we've had so much moisture.

TOADSTOOLS.

They are all over our yard this year. I don't like them. (give me a good old dandelion ...I know what to do with those )

But "fungi" is kind of creepy.

LOOK! A toadstool by a toad.
(he's thinking the same thing I'm thinking....creepy)

The pumpkin has finally sprouted. I did plant it a little later than the rest of the garden, and I think the dog walks over it, but it's finally popped up.

And lettuce. This is the lettuce in the barrel.

And some tomatoes!

I have tomatoes in a barrel and then 2 topsy turvy containers. I is doing well. This is the "well" one.

It's kind of hard to see.

This one is the "not so well" one.

My garden thru the fence. Remember, we are using the old dog pen (the dog never actually went in the pen, it was just nice to have for once a year when we had a big BBQ and he was bugging us.

I didn't want to take down all of the fence tho, because the Virginia Creeper is creeping along so nicely.

Summer Squash.

with...

FUNGI.

(the creepy kind)

can you see it?

A closer look for you.

This really is the creepy kind, because it doesn't have a "cap" on it like a mushroom.

So...my question is, will it hurt, or has it hurt the squash?

I took it out after I took the picture, so we have no more fungi in with the vegetables.

My square foot garden!

In the high Nevada Desert.

The cooler weather has done great things for the broccoli and cauliflower plants.

Monroe.

I think he is sometimes walking on the squashes and pumpkin plants.

He is stunting their growth, just like he has stunted the grass under the bush. (he does have a path around the yard )

Can you solve a marital dispute?

the lilac bushes. and the snowball bush.

They hang over the grass.

I think they are pretty.

The Handyman wants to trim them back so he can mow easily.

He wants a more manicured look.

I like the natural look.

You can tell (kind of) by the picture, how much it hangs over the grass. And he does have to mow. He fights with it every time.

I think he makes it worse than it has to be....he exaggerates to make a point to me.

One time he even exaggerated so much he poked himself in the eye with a branch!!

That was taking it a bit far if you ask me.

What do you think?

Trimmed up or ala naturel ?

The Backyard update

2009-06-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

It rained the whole time I was gone up north...It rained in Nevada. Every day for over 10 days.
This is very unusual.....

Needless to say, my garden was fine. I was very worried about it....worried that the Handy Man would forget to water it.
It all turned out fine.
Everything has sprouted and is growing.

My plants are all potted and hanging baskets are hung (I'm afraid to open my nursery bill.... it came in the mail while I was gone. It 's still sitting there unopened. I have an idea about how much I spent...how much I budgeted for, but I am always a little over. )

Even tho it rained straight for 10 days, the next day it looks dry....

that is the curse of living in a desert.

Here are my squash, cucumbers and zucchini. The Handy-Man will make some supports for them, so they will grow "up". It says you can do this in the square foot gardening book....of course I'm planted a bit different, but it will work. Just wait and see.

Quail on a rock!

From my kitchen window!!

The dreaded "dog path" can be seen from here. And interestingly, the back of the Handy-man. We only see his back..... not on purpose, but apparently he just doesn't want to be seen.

The only trouble I'm having is with my Mountain Ash Tree. Did you know that Mountain Ash's are not part of the Ash family, but part of the Apple Tree Family? Kind of like a crab-apple tree.
See this branch? a lot of them are like that..... I think it is a disease called "Fire Blight".

Fire Blight:
Flower clusters are killed and turn dark brown to black. Dead leaves and aborted flower parts remain on the tree. Long, slightly sunken cankers are seen where the dead wood meets the live. In the spring, slime may ooze from the canker if the weather is warm and wet. No fungal fruiting structures are found in the canker. Flower clusters are killed and turn dark brown to black.

Management:
During dormancy when the weather is dry, prune infected branches, cutting at least 4 inches below the base of the canker. Disinfest pruning tools frequently. During the growing season, make pruning cuts at least 12 inches below the base of the canker. Use fertilization practices that do not promote excessive succulent growth. Remove root suckers and water sprouts while they are small. Remove unwanted plants that are susceptible to the disease from near cultivated plants.

I don't want to cut it back, but I guess I'm going to have to... this weekend maybe.
and I want to buy a few more flowers, for a pot by the hammock and by the "secret garden" (which is two chairs up in the corner of the yard, where I like to sit and read books. )

And here I was trying to get the whole tree...it's hard because it's kind of spindly. It looks really bad compared to what it looked like last year. (there is an apple tree behind it, so it is hard to picture )

The stepping stones you see , go up to the "secret garden".

The Virginia Creeper is hanging down from the patio cover. The Handy Man will be chopping it off soon, but I like it. It makes it look---more green. When you look out of it, it seems very "English Garden-ish" But he is annoyed by it.

Here is a better view of the sickly Mountain Ash Tree. Not looking so good!!

We walked tonight and it rained on us, by the time we got home it was raining hard. Everything looks so green in the rain. Not so dessert like. yay!!
But I want it to stop soon, because our summers aren't very long and I want every warm day I can get.

A Hummingbird nest

2009-05-26T21:58:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, we worked in our yard all day. I finished up the garden, finally getting the tomato plants in the pot and the "upside down" hangers, and finished planting the pumpkins and the rest of the lettuce in a barrel. I know this is stupid, but I went ahead and put in the sweet peas, even tho I know it will be way too hot soon.

I have way too much "junk" in my yard, I know. But it's the greatest yard EVER for an Easter Egg hunt.

Monday we put out some flags for Memorial Day, but I guess it can be the "theme" for the summer... Flag Day, 4th of July, Labor Day....

A few mornings ago, I was out having a cup of coffee in the morning and I noticed a hummingbird who kept coming and hovering right under the patio cover. I didn't think too much of it, but then on Sunday, it happened again.
We have an old string of lights ....red white and blue lights....strung under the patio cover...it gives off a twinkly glow at night, but I said to the Handy Man, "that hummingbird is going to electrocute himself in that cord!"
And then I said " A NEST....there is a nest."

Hummingbird nests look kind of like a big "spider sack" in a way.
I want so badly to get a ladder and see the hummingbird eggs. I bet they are teeny.

On Monday afternoon, I lay in the patio swing trying to get a picture.... and to show how small the nest really is.
It's very exciting to me to have a hummingbird nest so close.

Other bird nerd, posts are here.

Here she sits.

See how small it really is?

I caught her flying away.... on the left bottom you can see her. We make her nervous on our patio.

Random pictures from our yard work on Sunday

The tomato plants are in the barrels now.

And the Square foot garden is coming along.

taking a moment to decorate for Memorial Day

Just watching the show!! Old Monroe.

Oh....and the tomatos in the upside down baskets!

I like my new flower pot....it was so easy to make. I found it in Birds and Bloom.

And now.....I am opening myself to you......and showing you...THE DOG PATH!! He has destroyed the grass in this area. Grrrrrr.....dogs!

And there is my "Kitchen Window".

And coming into my yard from the garage. You have to walk under the Purple Globe Locust Tree.

yard notes

2009-05-21T10:52:00.001-07:00

Yesterday while walking around my yard, I had a notebook and was writing down what we need at the nursery this weekend.

I am famous for writing lists. I write them for everything, so there was a always a list or two on our counter when the boys were still at home.
One, of course was a grocery list, and our youngest son, Mark, would always...ALWAYS write in "candy for Mark" on my lists. He's even done this as an adult, anytime they are home for a visit.

I left my notebook with my garden wants list on the counter and when I came back to it, it had "Candy for Mark" written in!
A ghost? LOL nope, just the Handy-Man being cute.
It brought back a nice memory of my son.

Disregard the bad handwriting... I had garden gloves on.

and then.... this is too funny.....My father in law, Phil, sent me this after looking at my blog...

Debbie,

I smile every time I see your square foot garden, cheers me up big time. And its coming along just fine, You'll be surprised how much you can get out of it. I love your back yard. Only wish I could still get out and work in ours. I am learning to sit and watch Greg and Scott as they do things for me.

Tomorrow Terri gets to have a nuclear stress test since she has been having some heavy feeling on her chest. I told her that her boobs were too big. She then asked if she could have them reduced and I said of course! She'll never do it though.

Have a great week end.

I'm laughing my rear off. Who else's FIL would tell about his wife's boob reduction?
Not that my mother in law is getting one, nor does she really want one. (well....maybe? LOL But the thing is...she never would have "asked", she would have told.) I'm sure the conversation was a stress reducer, considering she's been having some chest problems, with a history of heart problems.

They've always had fun yards....nice yards, yards that make you want to read a book and relax.
I'll find some old pictures and scan them soon.
It makes me a bit melancholy to think that both he and my dad are not working in their yards like they used to.

Just another Wednesday Morning in the big backyard

2009-05-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

My garden...
You know I look at blogs like Mary's at "My New 30" and I think I'm so far behind. I've always wanted to live somewhere green, and I always envy those who do. My garden is sooo far behind some of you.

Having said that tho...I love the desert, the HIGH desert. (I cannot tolerate the Arizona heat in the summer time. Don't yell at me Arizonians, my son lives there, and I do like it, just in the winter time best )
I wonder what it takes to "love" the desert. How do we acclimate to our surroundings? How do we come to love a place? While I can appreciate other regions and I want nothing more than to visit them, and enjoy them....the high desert is home.

It has always been a source of controversy, the question: which is better the forest or the wide open spaces?

People who grow up in the desert, with wide-open spaces tend to get claustrophobic in the mountains/forests.
They've even gone so far to say that "it's pretty, but all you can see is a tree. It blocks your view".
But people from more wooded areas can find the "wide-open" spaces (especially desert spaces) very bleak and kind of melancholy.
I like both (there's nothing like being a fence walker. Very PC, that's me. )
I grew up in Washington and Oregon, so I love the mountain/forests and the lakes. But I've lived in Nevada for much longer, and I truly love the high desert.
What I don't like.... FORGIVE ME FLATLANDERS.... or it's not that I don't like it, but I haven't had the opportunity to appreciate it, are the flatlands.

Okay, enough said, this is about my big backyard!!
We are high desert, dry, arid, wide-open spaces. It' get green and lush soon enough (if I put enough water on it.)

It looks like I am still in the beginning stages by this picture, but if you look closely, you can see that I have radishes coming up. And some marigolds.
It's just that I'm still adding stuff.

We put in these barrels to take the overflow.... tomato plants and some peas (even tho I know it's too hot for the peas now) and the rest of the lettuce.

I have some mint growing haphazardly there, (I keep trying to pull it up and it keeps coming back) and some rhubarb too.

I put the chair back in place...(I had moved it to get a picture without it. And the screens behind it. I guess we need to put them back in the windows. I just like looking thru windows without screens, but now that summer is upon us again, they must go back in) that is where the handy man sits while he watches me work.
That is such a switch in our personalities.... he sitting while I'm working. Usually it's the other way around.

The week before last we were worried about freezing temps at night. The Handy Man even bought some plastic to cover our garden, just in case.
Then on Saturday it hit 92 degrees and hasn't let up since!
Crazy weather.

We did have some wind tho..... and all the little worms from the Mulberry Tree came down.

I won't take a picture of this, but we've discovered that our cat, Izzy, goes to the bathroom in the yard. Just like a dog. Just like her big brother Monroe. LOL (our basset hound).

How weird is that? She'll scratch a bit of dead grass and a leaf or two up on it, but ????

The rest of the photos are just random of our yard, to see how it "greens up" over the summer.

Another frog....

The Handy Man HATES that I put little do-dahs in the middle of the yard. It upsets his mowing technique. His "grid" if you will.

This morning I stood "outside" my Kitchen Window, and took the same pictures I've been taking from inside my kitchen. I will use these on my food blog, when I post "What's outside your kitchen Window"

Work day on Sunday

2009-05-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

My helpers. Monroe and Izzy.
When I go out to water at 6:00 a.m. with coffee cup in hand, they follow me around the yard. One day I'll trip and kill myself, because the cat wanders in and out and between my legs. Monroe just can't see or hear very well and bumps me from behind or stops right in front of me to smell the flowers (or poop. LOL ) and I just keep going.

I said to Rich on Sunday morning.... I never get your face in these pictures. He said....he once had a boss who said, they better be WORKING, and he wanted to see nothing but "elbows and assholes"
or something like that. so this is what you see of Rich.

His shirt says it all.......

We really are greening up!

I love lilacs!

Okay...now for the square-foot garden. I bought my compost, and my potting soil. Vermiculite? I can't find it anywhere. So, I'm doing without. I did fertilize the dirt in the bottom of my square foots.... it was organic.

Just trying to be as green as I can. I wanted a compost pile off to the side, but the Handy Man doesn't really want one. So, we'll see.

SEE? Between my legs, around my feet, over, under, up....one day I'll fall.

The Handy Man also asks me, "how can you work with that camera around your neck?"

Ha!

It was "I" who planted...notice I couldn't take pictures while I was planting? I didn't get my vine plants planted yet (cucumbers, zucchini, pumpkins, summer squash). And I started a lot of things from seed: carrots, beets, radishes, beans, lettuce. The peppers and the onions, broccoli, cauliflower I bought starter plants.

In the barrel that you see there....a few strawberry plants. Peas and tomatoes to go in also.

I have just one fear. That Izzy will use this as a bathroom. hmmmm....netting to go down tomorrow.

The Iris are pretty right now.

A new frog!!

Just my yard..

Getting the fountain barrel going again. Pretty soon, we'll have the grape vine all leafed out and over the arbor, that holds the wine-barrel fountain.

Making the Square Foot garden

2009-04-26T17:52:00.001-07:00

I read really fast. And because I do so, I often miss misspelled words, because I "know" what the writer is trying to get across.
BUT...I never realized that in my haste, I might read directions WRONG!!!!

My father in law, Phil, wrote and said that we should make a "square-foot" garden, as you can get a lot from a small space that way.

I looked at a picture of a square ft garden, told Rich what I wanted. (12 squares, a foot each) He told me what to buy, I went to the lumber yard, bought the wood, came home, Had Rich cut the wood and screw it together ...... then went back in and looked at the directions.
Hmmm.... I see, it was just supposed to be a "grid overlay", not 12 individual spaces.

But...we're going to go with what we have. I think it will work out just fine.
Tomorrow, we'll get the soil and fill in the squares and add some soil to the rest of the garden, and get ready to plant.
The barrel will have peas or beans.
And the circle will have something else. LOL
and on the other side of the little walk way, we'll get three more barrels for some container gardening. Probably one of the barrels will be a "salad" barrel.
I have some carrots, onions, radishes, beets, peas, beans, and suumer squash, zuchinni and pumpkin.
I have too many things for such a small space.
We'll see how it goes.

One would think, by some of the pictures, that we have a HUGE yard. And we do, I just don't want to take any of it away to plant a vegetable garden, so this is what we'll do this year.

The Frog is waiting to see....

Monroe too!!

Our space....it ain't much, but it will have to do.

The snowball bush is getting blooms....

And we begin the process...

4 feet by 4 feet....

Our yard is greening up. Rich put some fertilizer on last week, and as you know, it snowed on Wednesday, so the grass grew, but today, his lawn mower was not working.

He was NOT a happy camper. He tried to fix it, but...I think it's time for a new lawn mower.

Monroe watched the sawdust fly!

My little veggie boxes.....

Wed, summer, Thursday spring. Today WINTER

2009-04-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

It began with a few flurries (taken by a blurry camera person)

This weekend we'll be making our "square foot" raised bed. And obviously, I didn't have to worry about getting my seeds in the ground! Because THIS is what we woke up to today.....

It's LEAP FROG you guys.....(get your minds out of the gutter)

The Garden Project

2009-04-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

We begin.

Northern Nevada, a warm sunny day in April. Shall we plant? Not, quite yet.... it will freeze again, (It might even spit out a snow flurry or two) but it's a good day to start to make room for the garden.

Trust me.... by the end of the summer, you will be amazed at how green I can make this old dry Nevada Big Backyard.

This summer, we've decided to plant a small vegetable garden... I haven't done this in years!
We are going to move the dog house (he never uses the dog pen anyway )

The side yard where the dog pen is and what will be transformed into a garden...now looks like this:
YIKES!!

But really.....trust me.

Really Monore....it'll be okay.
(we dont' lock you up in the pen anyway!!)

And the rest of my yard

2009-04-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

So, for the rest of the backyard..... I know some of you have seen it in it's glory days (that would be June, July, August, September, October, November, and sometimes December. After that, those Nevada winters are rough on our big backyard.

Sunday we skipped church and cleaned off the patio, moved the dog house for the garden, pulled some old weeds,

But like I said....trust me. It will be green and pretty and you'll be wanting an invite to an outdoor get-together!

and these are in no particular order.... just what we did thru-out the day on Sunday.