Arbor Day and FREE Trees!

Celebrate Arbor Day tomorrow, April 29th and plant a tree! Anyone is welcome to help with one of my 13 that still need planting! If you have a back hoe, all the better.

Photo credit

Or you could visit this amazing resource of knowledge and ideas: arborday.org. They give some great suggestions for celebrating:

• Plant a tree yourself. It is an act of optimism and kindness, a labor of love and a commitment to stewardship.
• Read a book about trees. Learn to identify trees in your yard and neighborhood.
• Enjoy the outdoors. Visit a local park or take a nature hike.
• Attend a class on tree and plant care.
• Organize or join a beautification project in your community or area.
  

Whatever you do, don't miss this: 10 FREE trees for buying a $10 membership to the Arbor Day Foundation!

Go to this memberships link and choose from 10 Flowering trees, 10 Colorado Blue Spruces, 10 Wild Bird garden trees, 10 Autumn Classics, and more! The trees will be very small (only 6 to 12 inches) but if you have space and time to let them mature for a few years they will grow big enough to transplant into your landscape.

This offer only goes until May 7th because they want to make sure you plant your trees in the most prime time (they offer it again in the fall). I just tried it myself and I'll let you know how it goes. You also get 33-56% discount on trees in their online nursery.

They even provide a great Tree Planting guide (in case you're an engineer and not a gardener, like my husband... see last post).

Happy Arbor Day!

A Day in the Yard

Saturday was a blustery and cold day for yard work, but we gave it a valiant effort. We got a load of compost dumped on the garden to use in back filling trees and working into planting areas. It is rich and dark... and guess where from? Mink manure! If you live in Lehi you are all too familiar with the mink farm smell that permeates the air through the summer... but it actually makes for good compost and doesn't even smell.

We started with the flower bed closest to the front door. It needed to be raised and graded to slope away from the house to drain properly, so we dumped a bunch of compost on and turned it in with a shovel. Hopefully it will improve the rocky, clay dominant, compacted soil just a little bit!

Mike dug a hole for our first and only tree to be planted thus far (Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar). He made me laugh... he has an engineer's brain for sure. He measured the pot and set out to dig an efficient hole exactly that size. When I realized what he was up to I had to explain that gardeners do things differently... the hole needs to be double the height and width of the root ball to allow for growth! He was bummed and wants to buy a pick axe.

I jumped the gun a little and planted some perennials (bleeding hearts and hosta) even though we don't have sprinklers in yet. I'll take a little hand-watering over barrenness.

Coming up soon I am going to tell you about some great shade plants that I hope to find for this North-facing bed!

Flowering Trees

'Tis the season for blossoms! I've gathered a few pictures from here and there and thought it would be fun to show you what you are seeing in bloom right now.

Malus: Crabapples

'Spring Snow'

(We just bought three of these for our yard and I'm so excited!)

'Floribunda'

Pyrus calleryanna 'Chanticleer': Flowering Pear

These are popular street trees and you can spot them everywhere you go.

They are tall and columnar, and they're about to burst forth in white glory!

(We also just bought three of these!)

Forsythia

I'm cheating a little on this one because it's a shrub, but it's yellow blooms are abundant right now so I wanted to mention it. This happy hill was spotted at BYU last week.


Prunus serrulata: Japanese Cherry, many varieties!




Wisteria
I've mentioned before this is one of my very favorites! As soon as I have something it can climb I will have one in my yard!


WillowThis is not a flowering tree but I just had to mention it because it's one of the first trees you'll see turning green and leafing out every spring. It's a sure sign the world is waking up and it makes me happy!

Just as a side note, if you are looking for trees this spring make sure you check your local Home Depot, and do it quick! They have some smoking deals on beautiful trees right now (really, like a fraction of the prices you would pay at a nursery). As you can see we couldn't pass them up!

Grass and Gas

I noticed something this week: grass is GREEN! After I drive out of my neighborhood (where yards are still brown dirt) everything is coming alive!

My roommates at BYU used to laugh at me, but I always loved the smell of fresh cut grass and gasoline on campus in the springtime. It's a sure sign that spring is here!

When I worked at Noni I became a little particular about mow lines in the grass. If you follow the same lines every week it makes a crisp stripe pattern. Mike's going to have his work cut out for him on his riding lawnmower... assuming we have one someday. Although if it's riding, I may just do it myself. :)

Dreaming of Garden

Our yard now consists of lots of dirt (sorry, real gardeners don't say the 'd' word... soil) or sometimes mud, depending on the crazy weather we're having. The first item on my yard to-do list is to stake out a garden plot and amend it like crazy to get it ready to plant some early crops in the next few weeks.

First I have to show you some views. Here's Mt. Timpanogos from one of my daughters' windows.

These are from the same window, just moving on south. We can see the whole front range in all it's glory!

Something I really love is looking out over the fields turning green! And at the bottom of this shot is... drumroll... the garden area! That is the southeast corner of our back yard, which ends with the sidewalk. Eventually we will have it fenced, but for now we need to find other means to protect it. You can see a few nice neighbors have enjoyed driving over it.

Now don't worry, this picture is from last June, but I just wanted to mention that the first thing I am going to plant is my peas. Last year I planted peas on April 15 and used this little contraption for letting them climb: 2x2's and chicken wire. Real fancy, huh? But it worked like a charm! We have yet to go back to the old house and pick it up, but I'm sure the new renters won't miss it much.

Let the growing season begin!

Spring is Springing

Happy first day of SPRING! I'm so happy it's on it's way. Even though there are rain showers forecast for the next few weeks, the warmer temperatures are waking things up. And they don't say "April showers bring May flowers" for no reason!

I spotted a few tell-tale signs of spring over the weekend. The buds on this ornamental pear are swelling and before long it will be covered in popcorn blossoms!

My bulbs sprouted!!! The tulips are a couple inches tall now...

... and even a hyacinth popped up! You've heard it enough, but I am sad to leave behind the flowers I've planted. They're like old friends.

My daffodils have buds on them. I may see some color yet!

Spring Cleaning

It was so beautiful outside one day I physically couldn't stay indoors. It was a perfect time to do some spring cleaning in the garden beds... things I really should have done sooner but better late than never.
My iris are perking up. I pulled all the dead leaves off to give them a fresh start. I am broken hearted that I can't take these with my to the new house, but my mom assures me there are many more flower starts to be taken from her yard. The new renters better appreciate them.

I found some monsters already... watch out for the mustard weeds! As soon as those little yellow flowers go to seed, they will send up seedlings everywhere. Uproot them early to save yourself some work!

My oregano and chives overwintered nicely and are already filling in. Again, I'm going to miss them, but I have plans for a kitchen herb garden in the new place.

The strawberries spread a lot last year. I think I might have to take a few of these in pots to the new house, especially because of their sentimental value.

I was super excited to see these pushing up--daffodils! All my bulbs are on the north side of the house and while south-facers are already enjoying blooms we are barely thawing. In fact, some pockets of bulbs aren't showing signs of life and I wonder if they rotted in the ground again. Sigh. Our new house faces north too, but I have flower beds planned away from the shadows for my bulb displays!

Just an extra plug, March is a perfect time for yard clean-up. Cut back those dead seeds pods and leaves on perennials to give them a fresh start and nip the weeds in the bud. Enjoy the sunshine in between spring showers this week!