When replying to Mona in the weather thread, I said "but I dont have a garden, so..." this led her to ask me if I have plants
The answer is yes, but I posted what I did because I don't consider my yard a "garden," -- it's my yard. Gardens are planned, well-kept, cared for, weeded, fertilized, agonized over, appreciated and enjoyed, among other things. My yard is appreciated and enjoyed, by both me and various critters, including my dogs.
I go out with the weed-whacker in the back yard when the weeds are tickling the dogs bellies (I have greyhounds - they have LONG legs). I weed-whack the utility meter areas out of consideration for the meter readers. The rest of it depends on my state of mind, the weather, etc. My favorite neighbor mows my gargantual front yard cause he has a zero-turn riding mower and loves to mow. My back yard belongs to the dogs, and is as much pine cones and wood chips as it is weeds and dog-poop. So I weed-whack, and hope I don't whack the dog-poop (and yes, I've done it).
My front yard was nothing but Zoysia grass when I moved in (with a strip of weeds near the curb). The weeds are still there, but the yard has been broken up into islands/beds with something like 20 trees scattered around in various stages of growth. I'm hoping that someday, some of them will shade my southwestern exposure front porch/home office area. But at this point, none of them have been in the ground more than 3 years, so not much shade yet.
The Forest Pansy Redbud died, but one of the suckers from its root system survived and blooms for me (standard redbud, not forest pansy, but strong and healthy so I don't much care).
I've planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 spring bulbs in various places around the front yard...LOVE it in the spring when they bloom. This year, I've scattered daylilies among them.
In this picture, the bit with the landscape timbers is new..I expanded that island in Feb when I was spreading the rest of last year's free wood chips. Pic is from early March, IIRC. There are 3 day-lilies now in that bed beyond those front daffies -- an un-named purple unusual form, Rue Madelaine and Alaska Midnight. Those landscape timbers are just lying on the ground...they were left over from last year's projects, and I decided they made a good border.
There's a pink flowering almond on the other side of the driveway...
I have 2 Kanzaa (kwanza?) cherries...they're very reliable bloomers for me.
A summer wonder crabapple in the side yard has pretty blooms
But more important to me, the golden delicious tree I snagged for $3 in 2010 bloomed this year!
And we mustn't forget the legacy lilac...it came with the house, and I didn't know it was there until it bloomed the following spring, telling me I really was home. We had a lilac bush/tree in the backyard of my childhood home, and this "little patch of paradise" as I call it, is the first place I've ever really felt at home since we moved out of that first house when I was 14.
