Cedar Waxwings are visiting our yard...

They are very pretty.  They sit up in the fir trees or our neighbor's birch, then they'll swoop down to sit in the Japanese Maple and bathe in the water.

About a year ago, Kermit dug a new pond for us. 
http://irisfleuron.blogspot.com/2011/01/no-new-pics-today.html   
Did a little landscaping.  This Spring, we've been working on it, and here it is now

Had some new Dahlia blooms today, so I took a picture of that too.  

I put in a LOT of annuals the other day.  Dianthus, Zinna, some hot and sweet peppers. I fertilized them today, so hopefully that helps.  Something is eating one of my Wave Petunias.  Not both.  I do not see any new damage, so it will probably recover.

Beautiful Day!

Sorry, no pics for now. I forgot the camera at school again.  I'll pick it up tonight so I can show you compost pictures.

Speaking of compost, I have a good amount of it!  I sifted the "done" pile this morning.  Nice fluffy dirt.  I do the cold composting method.  Meaning I pile it, turn it once in a great while.  Try to chip/shred it before it gets piled.

I Love Worms!  If you are cold composting and are not finding lots of worms, you need to add food scraps, good dirt, dried tree leaves, and leafy greens.  If your debri is composting and you have no worms, you probably got an accidental hot compost.  It makes me really happy when I go to plant something anywhere in my yard and always find worms.  A sign of healthy soil.  

I gave up tilling about 3 years ago.  Now I just keep piling on the compost, and turn the soil with a garden fork if I feel like it.  When I plant, I can usually go down a good 7" with little effort.

Put some seeds out too.  Marjoram and Sean Conway Sunflowers.

Last night we made a ring for the Water Hyacinth out of foam pipe insulation and a PVC piece to connect the ends into a circle.  It moves around the pond in a really nice circle.  I'm going to buy small solar lights that float to put in the ring and around the pond.  That will be a good subject for a long exposure shot.

Laze around this afternoon, maybe go shopping, get mail.  This evening is a retirement party for some very special people.  It should be seriously fun.

Then you go back up the hill...

Yesterday we covered the way down the A Road.  Now we're going to trek back up.

First, you turn around and start back up the hill.

I got to take a lot of little breaks on Monday, because I can't shoot and be moving at the same time.  So here's a few more that I just thought were nice.

Then the road department feels they must state the obvious.

Ya think?

Almost there...

Towards the end of the walk.  It was actually my idea to take this picture.  No makeup, sweaty but happy.

And there it is, the car. Usually we park at the boat launch, and the beginning of Monday is the last leg of the walk, but I was feeling unpracticed, so we did the hardest first on Monday.

 

I've written about our weekend walks a few times. Today I decided to take along a point and shoot to take some pictures of the pretty area.

First my walking partners, Kermit and Penny.

We parked three quarters of the way up so I could get the big hill out of the way.  See that structure to the right?  That's where we're heading.

So up we go.

 

At the top, there is Bruce's Eddy boat launch area.

Then we turn around and go down the hill, about 1.7 miles.

At the bottom is a bridge that a bunch of people fish off of.

 

When it's hot, this culvert puts out some nice air conditioning.

Turn around, and up we go.  Those pics next time.  It was nice today.  Not raining, not too hot or cold.  Very nice walk.

Garden News

Spring has definitely sprung in Orofino Idaho!  We've still had some clouds and rain, but some spectacular days for getting lots done outside.

Here is the UV set we bought.  It WORKED!!  The pond is clear to the bottom.  

Since the pond is clear, now I can take pictures of the fish.  3 Koi, and 2 feeder fish.  The white Koi is 8 years old.

Here's a different view of the spitter, showing more of the landscape now that it has had some time to mature.  We just moved the two Japanese Maples from the front yard to the current spots here.  They were volunteer seedlings many years ago.

That's my lovely Hanna in the background.  This is a close up I took that evening.

A frog and a toad have made the pond their home.  I didn't want to disturb the toad, he lives in the skimmer.  But my frog buddy doesn't complain about the paparazzi bugging him.  I want to name him, but am having a hard time coming up with something.  Post it on Facebook if you think of a cool name.  Can't be Kermit, that's my husband's name online.

Tomorrow I'll post some pics of my transplants and tell you a story of "The Lizard that Lived."

Been busy in the yard...

In between rain that is. But, it is perfect weather to transplant things. Cloud cover, light rain are nice to transplants.


Put out some chamomile recently, transplanted some lavendar and sage. Three new lavendar plants, don't remember the type. It has foliage that is a little bit more gray than what I have now. Joan at Green Things said it has a nice mounding habit, which is what I wanted.


Our pond was really, really, green. Additives are very expensive, so we blew a big wad of cash on a UV filter for the pond. It's housed in a Koi sculpture that is a spitter, so it looks good too. Of COURSE, I left my camera at school this weekend, so no pics today. I'll take and post some this week.


We rearraged the rocks a little, and I started to add flower pots for the season. I could not find bowl planters in town, so I'm going to have to buy two online. I'm going to hide the new hardware with them.


The fish LOVE the new spitter. It also makes the water go in a nice circle. The fish float in the stream, then get under the waterfall and Swwwooooossshhhh....get pushed into the middle of the pond. If they don't want to be pushed, they just go off to the side. Quite fun to watch.


I did a LOT of work up on the hill last week. Cleared the paths, put out poppy seed, did a bit of weeding. None of the ferns made it through the winter.


Today I put out about 8 sweet pepper plants, two large variety of tomato, two Sungolds, and four Early Girls. I hope it stays cloudy for a few days.


On the stairway going up the terrace, I put three different varieties of Petunias. Two Waves, four Dreams Midnight, and another dark purple type that I can't find the tag for. In a low bowl, I put Live Wire fiberoptic grass, and a Mezoo Trailing Red Dorotheanthus.

Finally, no rain!

On Saturday, I finally got out and was able to set out a lot of seed.  We did some transplants about a week ago and I don't think I told you about those either.


We added two Japanese Maples, two Daub's Frosted Juniper, and two Canyon Blue Willows.  I'll get pictures of those when the Japanese Maples leaf out.


In the annual boxes, I put out mesculun, radishes, spinach, carrots, larkspur, and a flat leaf parsley that mimics the taste of celery.  I used to have a plant called Burnet that tasted like cucumbers.  I need to get that again.


I took some pictures of my spring flowers a week or two ago.  Here they are:


Open Hyacinth - you saw the unopened ones a few posts back.  They are now in their decline.  I love the way they smell out in the garden, but they are like lilies to me; too strong a fragrance for inside.

Daffodils

An early season tulip.  There is also a more orange variety in the garden that multiplied quite well.

I didn't take pictures of the seeded beds because they are just dirt and boring.  I look forward to chronicling their growth though.