our lush backyard paradise

Two years ago yesterday, we closed on this house that we love. We've done a lot of fun things and have countless wonderful memories. This is the longest that either of us has lived anywhere in 10 years! Here is what the backyard looks like as of this weekend.

The planter on the deck with butterfly bush, vinca, vinca vine & ranunculus

crepe myrtle with strawberries, pansies & mums in the forefront

oregano, sage, strawberries along the fence on the left

blueberry bushes on the left, tomato plants & peppers in the middle (just planted them, I got them at Lowe's for $.25 each :) and strawberries to the right of the crepe myrtle. a couple cukes in there somewhere too

tomatoes and asparagus with some zinnias & vincas for decor & carrots for companionship

raised beds with lettuce/veggies on the left of the magnolia bushes (which smell divine!) and squash & a raspberry bush in the raised bed to the right. The raspberry bush is in there because I saved it from the dead plant section at Lowes last year and just 'stuck it in' to hang out for the winter. Apparently I didn't find a new home for it quickly enough b/c it got BIG quickly.

tomatoes to the right, perennials to the left

all perennials (except the zinnias). liriope in the back, assorted in the middle, and carpet phlox in the front. Same thing on either side of the steps.

um, let's see if I know what it all is... vibernum (tall shrub far left), spirea, asters, hollyhocks, lupines, salvia, blue balloon flower, echinacea, shasta daisy, scabiosa, with vinca in the front calla lilies that I saved from last year and plan to use for cutting, gladiolus, and day lilies

vibernum & rose of sharon shrubs were there. I wish someone would come tell me how to prune them correctly!! The rose of sharons are HUGE. Day lilies, dianthus & violas under the birch

lettuce & kale from the garden. Yum!

Boy on a horse.

mmmmm, pesto

my basil always seems to do pretty well, but I don't really cook anything with basil in it. My solution is pesto, which I could eat on everything (or with a spoon. gross, I know. Sometimes I just can't help it). So, if you have extra basil, might I suggest:

2T toasted pine nuts (totally not necessary)
1-2 cloves garlic
1-1.5 c fresh basil leaves
4 oz. grated parm cheese (I ran out of the grated kind last time, so used 1/2 grated and 1/2 kraft. it was a little more grainey but still good)
1/2 c EVOO

food process all the dry stuff until it's pretty chopped up, then slowly add the oil until you like the consistency.

I like it on pasta (with xtra toasted pine nuts & parm cheese). I'm going to try it as dressing nxt time I have salad. It also freezes well - I froze some for over a year and it was still great.

tomatoes, squash and raspberries

Joshua got his own tool belt. It was a very exciting day.

That was the raspberry, obviously. The other day, he was following Zoe around trying to blow raspberries on her back. She was a little confused, like she thought it was fun but she was still very worried. It was hilarious.

Here are some pictures of my zucchini extravaganza. Zucchini bread, garden pizza and squash casserole. All delish!

the newest member of our family

This little guy came home on Sunday, and is now the 3rd tree to be planted in this spot. I think I'm finally happy with it. However, I am trying to figure out which cultivar it is, because it was mislabeled as a Natchez, which I don't think it can be because it doesn't have white flowers. It's 7 or 8 feet tall already, but I'm trying to figure out how big it's going to get. Not that I'll move it if I find out it's done growing!! From the national arboretum website, my guess is that it's a Seminole crape myrtle. If anyone knows or has a guess, please let me know! (Nancy, I'm hoping you have a good guess!) The flowers look a little lavendery in the picture, but they're really a medium pink, in my opinion.

lots o' squash

as you will see when I finally post pictures, we have an overabundance of squash and zucchini around these parts. Consequently, I have been trying to use it all without getting sick of it, and hiding it in things that Joshua and Craig will actually eat (because I surely don't want to eat 10 lbs of squash by myself). It's like Iron Chef with zucchini... I am, of course, winning, since I'm the only one playing. We also had lots o' tomatoes, so you will see those used too. I only have one zucchini left... until the next batch is ready to pick.

zucchini bread - Paula Deen
3 1/4 c flour (I only used 3 c, and used 1/2 whole wheat and 1/2 self rising)
1.5t salt
1tnutmeg
2t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
3 c sugar (I used 1 c sugar and 2 c splenda)
1 c vegetable oil (I only had 3/4ish, so I used an extra 1/4 c water)
4 eggs beaten
1/3 c water (not including the extra I used)
2 c grated zucchini
1 t lemon juice
1 c chopped pecans or walnuts (I used 1/2 oatmeal and about 1/3 c milled flax seed)
bake at 350 in 2 greased loaf pans for 1 hour or 5 mini pans for 45 min

squash casserole - Paula Deen
sautee until cooked, 6 c diced zucchini and squash in olive oil and drain well (I put them in a dishtowel and squeezed after I used the colander, I think that's what she said to do)
sautee 1 lg onion, diced, in 4T butter while the squash is draining
mix together in a bowl: squashes, onion & butter, 1/2 sour cream, 1/4 t pepper, 1/4 t garlic powder, 1/2 t salt... or maybe it's 1/2 t salt and 1/4 t garlic powder. who knows., 1 c grated cheddar. Put in casserole dish (my sm. round pampered chef one fit it perfectly) and top w/ 1 cup crushed ritz. Bake 15-20 min at 350

three cheese garden pizza - pampered chef (but I'm sure I forgot something)
make a crust or use a pillsbury one; we like to make a whole wheat crust
press 2 cloves garlic (or more :) and spread over crust. top w/ mozzerella & cheddar, I think (I used a pizza cheese mix), top with a sliced tomato, onion, zucchini and mushrooms, top with some grated parmesan. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes or so, until the crust is done... or you can get all fancy and bake the crust for a few minutes before you put all the stuff on.

chicken pot pie
make chicken pot pie as usual and add steamed zucchini to the veggies. you won't even know it's there...

Joshua also likes his zucchini raw, cut up into little sticks so that he can build stuff with them. He likes to dip them in lawry's.

HGTV up in here...

Our neighbors came over yesterday and told us our garage looked like HGTV. We've got 4 furniture refinishing / painting projects going on (of course I forgot to take 'before' photos!). I did some home improvements while Craig was away too. In addition to the photos below, I installed a 12' shelf in our closet, and did a few organization projects in the garage.

Zoe eating her oatmeal and yogurt with a spoon. She did well with the spoon but it was faster for her to use her fingers so she mostly did that. Needless to say, we've been doing bathtime in the morning.

Joshua wearing Daddy's baseball shirt. Look how my darling husband destroys the bed when he sleeps.
Such a big girl! We gave her this mug for her bday and she is pretty good at drinking out of it already. All that practice she's had trying to drink out of things in the bathtub. yuck.

here's the birthday girl. More pictures of the party in the next post

here's the pendant light Joshua and I installed while Craig was away. big improvement over the fluorescent light, and I didn't have to come up with a valence for our nice open pass thru. here are some of the first veggies from our garden. this zucchini was the only one on the plant. It was about 6" long when I let for NY and about 13" long when we came back 6 days later. Not exaggerating. The peas are about done now, and the tomatoes are about to start ripening faster than I can eat them. The jalapeno was super hot... I'll be making some good pico (w/out cilantro - yuck!) pretty soon!

I also painted a few (4) rooms while Craig was gone as a surprise. We both HATE painting so I knew Craig would be happy if he didn't have to participate. Once I got going, I enjoyed it, and it passed the time quickly. Joshua and Zoe watched A LOT of movies while I painted (and painted, and painted...) I painted our bedroom 'sand 3' (aka beige) and painted the master bathroom, closet (which it 6 x 12, so it's as big as a room), and massage/guest room 'vale mist' (benjamin moore 1494). We love it! My across the street neighbor is an artist so I commissioned her to paint something for the massage room and paid her in massage for it. I love it!! (she has an etsy shop - search for Erin Wardell - if anyone is interested :)

Zoe watching baby einstein and playing with a remote that doesn't work

prissy little missy!

Loving the yard!

Here's how the deck/yard is looking these days. We love it! I'm having fun in the gardens, just experimenting and trying to learn how to grow stuff b/c I've never done it before. I love to go to Lowe's and 'rescue' plants for 50 cents or $1, bring them home, and see them get big and beautiful with some TLC (& lots of water). I had a dream last night that my eggplant plant was covered with little baby eggplants. I have no idea what I will do if that happens, since the only thing I even know of containing eggplant are eggplant parm and baba ganoush (sp?). So, if anyone has some great eggplant recipes, let me know!!

Here's the very colorful front bed, surrounded by lots of monkey grass veggie garden

Zoe swingin'

The veggie gardens are on either side of the magnolia bushes, and there are a few blueberry plants under the magnolia bushes which will be fun for the kiddos if they do well! We have 3 more over by the deck too.

The front is nothing if not colorful! Craig and the across the street neighbor both say they like it. I'm not as sure. The gladiolus (gladioli?) are beautiful & huge! The petunias & marigolds in the pots are pretty too, when I remember to water them :)

It looks pretty empty back here because I planted lots of monkey grass (liriope) so as to fill most of it out with low maintenance foliage that can stand the heat and sun. As we've noticed in our front yard, it is hard to kill this stuff... and easy to divide and plant it elsewhere in the spring. The beds in front of the deck (left, in the picture) also have carpet phlox that will be pink next spring, and I'm about to plant lantana there, since the other plants I've gotten from a nursery all keep dying. Here's the huge river birch that we can't prune until 'sap season' is over. Underneath it are marigolds & dianthus that would like lots more sun. There are day lilies, vibernum & rose of sharon on either side of the tree also. My window boxes & hanging baskets are overflowing with flowers (impatients, petunias, verbena & vinca vine) - I love them!

And over here, we have a HUGE chaste tree, a butterfly bush & vibernum in dire need of pruning, a rose of sharon, a couple boxwoods hidden in the back for some unknown reason, daylilies, vinca, and several spirea. I planted a baby weigela bush & baby hydrangea here too

A baby butterfly bush in the planter Craig built, along with some petunias and bacopa (which looks scraggly so I think it's about to get replaced)

catching up again!

This is how Zoe feels about table food... she's been wearing her bows all week, they finally stay in her hair! SO cute!!
Here she is eating fistfulls of ground up chicken nuggets (that Joshua didn't want) with her 4.5 teeth
Here she is modeling the poncho that Rosemarie made for her. It fits perfectly and she'll be able to wear it for a while. My favorite detail is how Rosemarie left a little extra room at the neck for her 90th percentile head.
Zoe's not the only one growing up fast... here's Joshua pushing his new John Deere tractor stool. We got it for him so that he can get on/off the potty and reach to wash his hands. Notice how he's not wearing any pants - we're down to 2 diapers a day when we're at home, one at naptime and one at bedtime. He hasn't had an accident all week!Here's an updated view of the deck and a few of my projects. The border by the fence has day lilies, butterfly bushes and magnolia bushes that were here when we moved in. Between the day lilies and magnolia bushes are my veggie gardens, and in front of the butterfly bushes are pink petunias that I put in last weekend. Up close is one of two hanging baskets with petunia, verbena and vinca vine. We'll see how it looks when it fills out. The larger pot on the deck has mint, salvia and lemon thyme and the smaller has a petunia and stevia seeds.

Here we have some light & hot pink begonias planted among daylilies that will be yellow, and under the river birch are hot pink dianthus and yellow marigolds.
petunias, imaptients, verbena and vinca vine. I will of course be taking pictures when all these fill out.

I know this window box doesn't look like much. On the left is mint and on the right is red salvia. The rest will be herbs - there are tarragon, stevia, rosemary and oregano seeds in there. Maybe I'll actually use them, maybe they'll just look pretty. The planter on the deck, constructed by my wonderful hubby, has pink petunias and some lavendery blue things I can't remember the name of now. Behind those will be a butterfly bush to replace the one we had to dig up to put the deck in. We liked watching the butterflies and hummingbirds from the kitchen window so hopefully this one will grow quickly!

more impatients, petunias and vinca vine

tulips from the garden in the front yard. No picture yet, but in there now are some red & purple petunias and verbena, and I have a bunch of red salvia to put in once the rain stops. Joshua and I planted some gladiolus bulbs a couple months ago and they're starting to come up now so we'll see how those look by the front steps.