This year, for the first time in the 4 years we have lived here, we got a crop of edible cherries we could harvest off the tree in our front yard. I wonder if it has something to do with the strange June weather or some other factor? Either way, the whole family had fun harvesting several bowlfuls of fruit. The rest will be left for the birds as in past years.

During a break from the harvest, William and Joshua became enamored with the Lamb’s Ear plant near the cherry tree. They asked me if they could pick a few leaves for their own “lamb’s ears”.

We had an unusually wet and cool June this year… the coolest and wettest in my 13 years in Utah. The result for my vegetable garden was a fantastic cool-season vegetable crop. The peas and lettuce gave us almost more produce than we could handle. Enjoy these photos Emily and I took of some beautiful pea blossoms.

The garden is in full bloom: iris, salvia, honeysuckle, columbine, blue flax, allium, yarrow, roses, maiden pinks… BEAUTIFUL!!

I am so happy with the progress my front garden has made. It is hard to start with tiny baby plants and even seeds and try to imagine what the garden will look like in 3 years when it is mature. But this year, my plan is actually starting to look like a real garden. We have had something in bloom since early March. Here are some plants that are currently in bloom, and some pictures focusing on the path that has filled in a lot with creeping thymes and other groundcovers. I hope you enjoy. I am!

All the crocuses are in full bloom in the garden, with hundreds of other bulbs poking their leaves out. I love spring! Enjoy all the pictures! The awesome picture with the bee just landing on the purple crocus was taken by Emily. All of the kids have asked to help me take pictures of the garden. I will try to give them credit where it is due!

My very first crocus of the year are showing their faces! So far, just three little white crocus are up, but many more are pushing leaves up and will flower within the week. HOORAY!!!

I made a lesser New Year’s resolution for 2009 to take pictures of my front garden every week… Well, here we are at the end of January… and I haven’t done that. That is because the garden is covered with dirty-looking piles of snow… not very pretty or memorable. So, I have modified my resolution: I will take lots of pictures of my front garden this year, at (hopefully) regular intervals…

After our big Christmas snow storm, the snow melted into huge icicles on the front porch and all of our rooflines. It also dripped down onto my rose bushes. I thought it made a pretty cool effect. Take a look:

Yes, that is right. I was crazy enough to order 425 bulbs this year. Daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and muscari. I order so much garden material by catalog, that I started getting wholesale catalogs too. And I got a wholesale bulbs catalog with awesome offerings. I got all 425 bulbs for about $100… and they are full size, plump, beautiful bulbs.

William helping to plant the bulbs.

I bought them anticipating that John would help me plant them, but he has been so busy with work that he hasn’t been able to help. The kids have been great helpers, though. Emily has watched the twins, and Joshua and William take turns helping me dig and plant. My mom and brother came over one night and helped us too. So, batch by batch, we managed to plant all of them.

In total, our front yard has about 1000 bulbs in it. Last year we planted about the same number as this year, but only about half were bought. The others were ones we discovered while digging around the cherry tree to plant other plants. It turns out they must have been planted by some previous owner and then were left neglected and had become overgrown with grass. We dug up about 300 of them. Last year about 1/2 flowered, and 1/2 just sent up leaves to gain strength in the bulb. Between those and this years additions, I think the show next spring will be spectacular.

I have to admit that I am not a grass lover. I don’t enjoy having a vast expanse of lush green, perfectly level, 2 inch tall, sharply edged Kentucky Bluegrass. That isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy grass in certain instances. It is great for a picnic, to toss or kick a ball on, etc. But, when we bought our house and the “landscaping” was a couple of dying cherry trees, a couple of very small shade trees and nearly a half-acre of grass, I was unimpressed.

I like to garden, not pamper grass with weekly mowing, trimming, incessant spraying and fertilizing, all to keep a monoculture of a single organism happy and green looking. I wanted a place to dig in the soil and plant things that would flower and flourish and grow with a minimal amount of help from me, and a minimal amount of water.

So, last summer, I hired my teenage brother to dig out our front lawn. And I got busy sketching out a plan for a beautiful four season xeriscape garden. My husband and I gathered (with permission) chunks of broken up concrete from a nearby housing development to use as stepping “stones” in a curved pathway from the mailbox to the house. I started as many plants as I could from seed to save money, and I looked for sales at all the nearby nurseries to fill in the rest. I think the most I paid for any plant was $12 for a bush and a couple of ornamental grasses. I also shopped several catalogs for some specialty plants and bulbs.

This year I filled in some bare spots with a few more plants, next year I will do the same. Most of the plants are still quite small this year. I think that starting next spring, though, the front garden will really start to look mature and beautiful. This fall we will also be adding about 400 more bulbs to the garden for a spectacular spring display.

I will admit that it was a very big undertaking. Lots of seedling starting, lots of planting, and lots and lots of weeding. However, it is so worth it to me to have a garden that is a sanctuary and says “welcome to our home.”

My favorite Bearded Iris

I guess this blog is self-indulgent on my part. Just like my gardening is. With such a busy life: wife, mother of 5 (9 and under), etc etc, I have one thing that I love to do just for me and that is gardening. I love to plan, dig, plant, prune, shop at any and every nursery, browse garden catalogs, all of it. And this is where I am going to show off my successes (an maybe laugh at a few failures) Hope you enjoy. I know I will.