Alfresco

Note:  I started this post Thursday.  Then Blogger went down. (Can anyone say withdrawal?)  Then I left for three days.  Now I'm home and Blogger is back up.  So I shall post as-is, since I feel like I've been MIA, with the warning that things grew like wildfire while I was gone.  Prepare yourself for a ridiculous amount of follow-up photos in addition to road trip pics.

Yes it's true.  I was out in the yard with the camera again.  Fine, it's a sickness.  I have no control over it.  And now you will be forced to partake in my disease.  Well, I suppose I can't force you to look.  But if you don't you'll be sorrrrrry.

First of all, the most beautiful snowball viburnum in the land is blooming it's little heart out.  I love this plant.  If you have the room, you should plant one.  Mine's in the front yard in full sun.  It's four or five years old.

My poppies out front are starting to bloom too.

A pansy that came back from last year.

More wood hyacinth.

Iris coming up through the sweet woodruff.

A cute little potted tree.

 A silly little bulb that blooms with no leaves.

A different variety of saxifraga.

Now onto the backyard.  The deck is slowly starting to fill up with pots. (The pillows are piled on the table under the umbrella because of the rain.)

I've posted this side of the yard before, but I just love all the colors of green.  Everything is getting so big.  This is right off the deck.  You can see it behind the chairs in the first pictures.

Another one of my many potted trees.  He's so cute.

Another clematis.  Wait till you see the flowers on this one.  So cool.

I got this palm (the trunk is immediately to the left of the tower with the terra cotta pot on it) when I was working at a nursery over ten years ago.  They were changing out some display pots and he was headed for the garbage.  Of course I had to rescue him.  I can't remember how long ago I took him out of a pot and stuck him in the ground, but it has to have been about 7 years now.  He's big!

And he's getting ready to bloom!  Creepy lookin' buds, eh?

This is the bed at the back of the yard.  The left side is still lookin' a little bare.  There are two dahlias that will fill in, but I'll stick annuals in to fill in the rest.  Or, you never know, a perennial or two may come home with me at some point.

 Yes, that's a shovel.  It's not yard art.  I just didn't put it away last time I was out there.

The tree trunk in this picture is another one of my baby trees that got stuck in the ground two years ago.  It's a birch that I dug up a start of in a house I rented a zillion years ago.  I'm hoping I don't regret putting him in.  My goal was to block out the neighbors a little more.  The houses behind us sit up higher, so their windows look right out into our yard.

 My side-of-the-road yellow chair.  I keep my hand tools in the mailbox.  There's one in the front yard too.

Below the mailbox.

Epimedium.

Last, but certainly not least, the path along the backside of the house.  I dream of raised beds, but as you can see, we're runnin' out of room in these here parts.  So until I figure out where in the world I could put them, I plant my veggies and herbs on either side of this path.  My two blueberry bushes are also in here, as well as the kids two pots.

I'm linking up to Nifty Thrifty Sunday over at Nifty Thrifty Things.