TROUTS FARM YARD AND GARDENS
A Labor of Love which feeds our belly and our need for beauty
July, 2010
ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO
Jeremy stopped by and Bob invited him to the garden to harvest potatoes and carrots. When they were finished, they pulled two buckets of water into the shade and washed them up. Camille is very happy that Bob takes this extra step before
bringing produce into the kitchen.
TWO OF THE TREES IN OUR YARD
The poplar in the front yard with the busy bird feeder dominates Camille’s view from her desk. The tulip poplar in the back yard shows signs of wear. The many trees on our 1.88 acres attract all kinds of wildlife. We have sighted thirty-four species of birds on our property this year.
BUTTERFLY BUSH
The buddleia next to the pond to the left of our front porch attracts butterflies as its common name implies.
HOME SWEET HOME
Every month we become more comfortable in our new home and every month we discover new flowers that were planted by the former owners. From the Pampas Grass, to the Red Hot Pokers, to Black-eyed Susans, Rose of Sharon, Phlox and Irises, they obviously loved this place as much as we do. Some day we hope to be able to thank them for our beautiful landscaping legacy.
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
We were very excited to receive our brand new Hill rotary clothesline this month. It arrived in a very large box which
dominated our living room while we tugged and pulled at the steel poles to unload. The plastic bracket that holds the arms together had broken in shipping, but was promptly replaced by the great folks at Breeze Dryer.
DIGGING A HOLE
There was plenty to be done while we waited for the bracket to ship and Bob got right to work, digging a hole with Jason’s post hole digger. Next he set the ground socket in concrete. The main standard of the clothesline sits in the socket. The arms of the clothesline can be folded up like an umbrella and the whole unit pulled out. We like having the option of taking down the clothesline during bad weather or any time we would prefer not to look at it.
ANOTHER FLOWER BED TRANSFORMED
Here’s the bed in weeds – this picture was taken in April. There are Day Lilies, Red Hot Pokers, a Mimosa Tree, an interesting rock and a nice clump of Monkey Grass in there along with a lot of wire grass, pigweed and honeysuckle.
After a couple of hours spend digging out wire grass, laying down cardboard and shoveling wheelbarrow loads of soil, Camille has left the tree, the rock, the poker and the Monkey Grass. While she was weeding, Bob drove to town and brought home some perennial flowers.
Here’s the finished bed, all planted, mulched and watered. We left the Monkey grass on the right and a red hot poker plant in the back, planted moss rose around the rock, blanket flowers near the mimosa tree and added some colorful coreopsis. We topped it off with the deer Mom gave us a few years back.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The best part about our yard and garden is that special time when the sun is going down, the air has cooled and we’re all done. We’ve showered and eaten and often go out to the back porch to look at our beautiful yard, swap a few stories and wait until the fireflies come out.