Friday, August 27, 2010

Country Courtyard


Our new dishwasher arrived yesterday! That is the only reason I have time to blog :) I have to say a BIG thank you to my dad, since this was a housewarming gift from him! It is so sleek and shiny, and quiet, and I love it! My morning feels wide open because I spent only 5 minutes loading a dishwasher instead of an hour washing up by hand. So thank you, Dad!

As I promised, I will describe my general plan for the front yard. Right now, we have a sizeable lawn. It's nothing in comparison to the lawn at the old house, but its a decent size and a little more than we want to spend our time mowing. My plan is to enclose about half of the front yard with a stone wall. I have planted some of my flowers and my currants along the line that will be the front wall. I'd like the wall to run along the drive, from the front left corner of the porch to just under the spruce tree, then across the front yard and back along the right side, ending at the slope down to our basement. Its quite a large area, but as I said, it will certainly save us time mowing and still leave plenty of lawn for play, and also give me plenty of room for a large garden. We saved all the rock from the fireplace and with a few more loads of rock delivered, I will start the wall in the early spring next year.

Front view of house, purposed wall front view

When we moved, my father in law encouraged me to take all the plants from the garden with me. I counted up the plants when we were loading them into the back of a truck and the cash value of the plants came to over $600! I'm glad I took them, especially since I have split most of them into 2 or 3 pieces and those will be the foundation plants for my garden. I will be preparing the garden for next spring using the lasagna garden method. Along with the irises, peonies, currants, raspberries, rhubarb, labrador violet and lily of the valley I have planted now, I will mix in vegetables and a few more perennials next spring. I might have time to sink a few bulbs into the garden before the ground freezes too. Its not much to look at now, but I think it will be lovely next summer!


View of the drive from the porch, purposed wall and trellised entrance.

4 comments:

  1. Wow--how cool! Your dishwasher looks like a huge blessing on your daily doings. I look at the people of Bible and how they had servants to help with daily stuff and realize that we have servants too! It's such a blessing to get my "servants" going in the morning washing my clothes and dishes and making my coffee, etc... The humming of the "servants" make me hum too! ;)
    The walled area looks like a great idea and listening to your plans for the garden inspires me to try some more options for next year.

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  2. I can hardly wait to see what you do with that yard. It sounds like a brilliant plan!

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  3. Yay for new dishwashers!!! And I love the plan for the yard!! I can't wait until I can come up and wander through it :) :)

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  4. It's beautiful, and shiny!! How did you do the wall? That's really cool! It will be a lot of work, but I know it will be great when you are done.

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