Around the House

This post is inspired by Crystal's earlier post about the beautiful flowers she's been growing on her balcony. Of course, it also reminded me that I've badly neglected my yard this summer. I think every year is going to be the big "landscaping year" but obviously I'm deluding myself. A more realistic vision is the gradual changes we've been making over the last three years.

When we bought our 1921 Craftsman it was covered in faded red shingles that were more than 50 years old and the front door was obscured by enormous camellias (the picture to the left is of one of the cherry trees). Now, I like camellias as well as the next person, but whoever planted these things against the house was either not familiar with the tenacious nature of camellias or was deranged. It is nearly impossible to kill a camellia. We chopped ours down, removed the roots and still get sprouts from the scraps we missed. Normally removing a healthy plant would not even cross my mind, but these were out of control and made entering our house a little like stepping through the doors of a haunted house at a county fair. Their influence was so great, one of our neighbors even came to thank us for getting rid of them. On the plus side, the house came with two cherry trees, a laurel and a well-established pear.

This is a branch of the pear tree last summer. It was so loaded that a light rain pushed it beyond its weight limit and the branch came crashing down. Regardless, we gave away, canned, ate and threw away several hundred pounds of pears.

Even before we had closed escrow we were at the house planting bulbs and were rewarded in the spring with thriving tulips. The smaller purple flowers were already there and had naturalized all over the property. They multiply like crazy and we must have thousands. My dad also donated lilys, sunflowers, asters, phlox and gladiolus from his garden. I've since planted clematis, hydrangeas, lilac, trumpet vine, hostas, bleeding hearts, daffodils, crocus, African daisies, Shasta daisies, lupin, ferns and roses.




One of the reasons I fell in love with the house, even in its run-down condition was the woodwork inside. A lot of care was put into this house when it was built, and it still shows. Not even destructive renters could erase its character. Another reason was the abundance of mature trees. The largest cherry and the laurel grow next to each other in the side yard and their boughs arch overhead to create a cool retreat in the summer. This is a picture of the laurel outside the dining room window before we moved in. It's the same one I see out my second floor office window and is a popular congregating area for birds. I especially value the mature trees after having lived in Arizona where there is no foliage taller that your ankle for miles.

This is a view of Hurricane Ridge from the house and is yet another reason to love living here, despite it being somewhere near the back of beyond.