Our garden, a work in progress

After several years of neglect, we have really been working on the gardens this year, trying to make the yard look nice and finish projects in progress. I took some pictures today; there are some areas that are looking really good and some that need a lot more work.

Happy rose

 I'm very pleased that my roses are doing well. This one in particular is happy - on the northeast side of the house! It smells marvelous.

The area off the back patio is coming together nicely

 One area that needs some work is the shade garden. It has 'good bones' so it's just a matter of clearing out unwanted plants and making it pretty.

There's a bird bath hiding in there

Shade garden

 We have done some work the last few years to remove the invasive honey suckle from along the back fence. There is still much to do as a lot of weeds are growing there, including some chokeberry. Plus we need to remove the honeysuckle stumps. That's also where Chris's nemesis, poison ivy, tends to lurk.

Along the back fence

One of my favorite hidden treasures

 Currently I am working on clearing the grass from around some blue rug junipers I planted years ago along the driveway. We've mulched what is clear, but we still need to expand the line so they have room to grow.

 

Blue rug junipers

 We've been working on putting hardy water-tolerant plants in the front ditch. Because of the slope, it's not a fun area to mow so our goal is to fill it with plants. They need to tolerate a lot of water but also be hardy enough to not need watering. So, lots of day lilies, sedum, black eyed Susan, and periwinkle.

Front ditch

Another area we've been working on is the front 'island' where we have 2 redbud trees, 2 tulip poplars, native grass, 'ditch lilies', burning bush, peonies, and some bulbs.

Front island

Front island, from the other side

Then there's my 'rose garden', which is very sad. Even though it is on the south side of the house, the roses there aren't thriving as much as the backyard rose. They have also been neglected a bit, so we are starting to connect them into their own bed which will eventually expand to join the bed along the front of the house.

Rose garden

Old-fashioned rose

Bed along the front of the house

 There is a surprise in our back yard. He's been a good friend. One day I hope to build a bed around him, but that is for another year.

Our alien friend

We bought a rain barrel last year. Chris still needs to cut the gutter and hook it up. It would probably be full if we had gotten that done before April!

Rain barrel

 And because every garden should have one because he was a friend to animals:

St. Francis of Assisi 

Laundry made easy

Laundry never ends. That's just a fact of life. I don't have a particular laundry day, which works great for us. I just throw a load in when one needs washing. It can take all day by the time I remember to put it in the dryer (or for it to dry on the line when the weather is nice), but that's ok.

We came up with a system that makes it very easy. We have 2 hampers in our room, one for delicates and one for regulars.

Delicates go in the lavender, regulars in the green.

We don't have enough whites for a separate load, and I don't usually sort lights and darks unless I have a bunch of new clothes. Really, it doesn't matter. The boys have a basket in their room for their clothes. Theirs just all get done as a regular load (if they do have something delicate, like rare dressy clothes, they go in the hamper in our room.)

Here's where the genius of this system comes into play: I only do a load when a hamper is full. Everything is pre-sorted, so I don't waste time on that task. I usually don't have multiple loads to do on any given day.

As for sheets and towels, I do those in between.