Plant Crazy!

Here is an update on the plants being added to the labyrinth. I found a great Bay Area Nursery (and heard about it through the grapevine) called Annie's Annuals. You can see them on the web at: www.anniesannuals.com. I copied some of the pictures from the website so you can see first hand what plants are coming my way via UPS! Bring on the plants.

First is a Puya alpestris "Sapphire Tower":

A five foot stalk will bolt up in spring revealing these flowers:

Around the Puya I am going to plant Wild Indigo (Baptisia alba) to go along with the drought tolerant scheme of plants. I am hoping to find the purple smoke version too:

In another corner I am going to plant some Salvia or Sage plants. Here are the three varieties I ordered:

Today, I planted Japanese Blood Grass and some Blue Fescue grasses. These plants are near the Lavender. I will fill the gap around the lavender with Mimulus or Monkey Flower:

I will post a picture of the grasses tomorrow. I am having so much fun I don't know what I will do when I am all done with the backyard!

Let There Be Labyrinth

Our backyard labyrinth has been born. Andrew and I filled in our gravel pit with lots of topsoil to prepare the ground for the labyrinth. After lots of raking and leveling we were able to create the outline. We will be filling in the path with brick and then filling the spaces with lava rock. The four corners will be mini gardens with different themes. The top, left corner is home to our lemon tree and four new day lillies. The bottom, left corner only has lavender, but will soon have other plants. The other two corners will house fountain grasses and maybe some tropicals?

We LOVE our house and absolutely love doing all of the improvements together. I think the neighbors are sick of our "newlywed" way of working in the backyard. Our neighbor actually came out of the house to tell us to take a break. Here are some pictures of the rest of the yard:

The left side of the labyrinth.

My new plum, orange, white, and pink day lillies. The lemon tree is hiding behind them.

The right side of the yard all finished. The tree is in, the shrubs are planted and have mulch, and Andrew is BBQ'ing. I don't know if I mentioned that I planted two cannas at the end of the shrubs near the garden and other side walkway.

German Au Pair Weekend

This last weekend Andrew and I housed two German Au Pairs whom I met a month ago at a local park. Martina (the one on the left) has been here for 6 weeks and Marina (the one on the right) has been here for seven months. These girls have so much energy and are enjoying their time in the States. I am benefiting from their visit because Martina shares her German chocolate with me!

Andrew and I took them to downtown Walnut Creek on Friday night to see our night life. Then I took them up to Davis to see a "college town." While there, we stopped by my friend Nick's house and he and his girlfriend went shopping downtown with us. Then the girls and I moved on to shop at the Vacaville outlets. We shopped until we dropped.

It was a great weekend and unfortunately I am pretty slow at picking up German. Martina and Marina both couldn't believe that Americans really do dress up their dogs. Of course I had to put Teenie in her pajamas and LuLu in her skirt. Now Marina wants a Shitzu.

Auf Wiedersehen

Baby Smooshy

My mother's friend Anne just became a proud mother of a 7 week old pug. They haven't named him yet, but as we all know I was quick to choose a name for the little fella. With Teenie and LuLu's help, we decided to call him Smooshy until he has a permanent name. He is so adorable. Our family wishes you the best on your new arrival and I hope he learns to sleep through the night soon.

Does he want baby clothes?

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers! Andrew and I love our mommies very much! Andrew's parents stayed with us this weekend and helped us work in the yard. We planted our first tree, a Sophora japonica (aka. Japanese Pagoda Tree), and put in one row of shrubs along our side fence. While I planted my new plants, the Hursts worked hard on leveling the rock portion of our yard to prepare for our garden labyrinth. Ellen ripped out our not too happy Bougainvillea and has the wounds on her arms to prove it. Here are some pictures taken while it was raining, hence the bad lighting!

Our first tree! I've hugged it many times already.

Here it is in our yard. Ellen and I started digging the hole while Andrew and David ran to Ace Hardware and of course we dug the hole right where a drainage pipe was. Andrew helped relocate the pipe so we wouldn't have to dig up the whole yard.

I planted a flowering quince in the back, left corner of the yard. I also planted some perennials that I got for free at our local nursery. I can't remember their name right now.

I was so happy to plant my clytostoma vine this weekend. It is an evergreen, violet trumpet vine. I hope it is happy in the corner.

I hope all had a great weekend and I am ready for another weekend (I think it is going to be a long week)!