I know, I have disappeared yet again! Life has a funny way, of throwing you off your game. I like routine, and while I was looking forward to the school year starting, I had not realized how full my life was going to be. Don’t get me wrong, I have a lovely life with a sweet family, but finding time to carve out for the blog hasn’t happened. I’m still trying to figure that out. I miss writing and sharing and I have felt a little lost. I remember someone telling me that with kids it just gets busier (and harder) the older they get. At the time I had a baby who wasn’t sleeping through the night and needed A LOT of attention, so it was hard to imagine that to be the case. Now I would partially agree. We don’t over schedule our kids, but there is still a lot going on. Between school, homework, soccer and spending quality time with the kids it is pretty exhausting (although I would say not as tiring as having a small baby). I also have kids who like to be where ever we are, even my 6 year old generally prefers to play right by us (i.e. I am constantly stepping on legos). I am trying to savor this time because before I know it he will be hiding up in his room, but there are times when I wonder whether I will ever have real alone time again. My brain has felt really scattered, like I can’t put a complete though together. So please try and bear with me as I try to get back up and move forward.

So anyway back to the house and the garden and design…

I have managed to squeeze some gardening in the last couple of weekends thanks to some glorious weather and some strategically planned play dates. I decided last weekend to create the last piece of planting bed that I have been envisioning for a while. I mentioned my love of southern magnolias last time I wrote. Well of course after I searched out the perfect tree for the driveway and paid full price for the South Magnolia ‘Kay Parris’, I stopped at Home Depot  the next week and guess what they had? Southern Magnolia ‘Little Gem’. Curses! I had checked there the week before I bought my tree and they didn’t have anything like that. The only good thing was that the price was not that much less than the nursery, so I didn’t feel too terrible. Since then I have been stopping over to the plant section about once a week to see what they have and more importantly to check to see when everything would go on clearance. Every year around this time they will start marking all of the plants down (to clear space for the Christmas trees!). Well last Thursday was finally the day! 50% off all perennials, shrubs and trees! They were just putting the sign up when I pulled up on my lunch break. I quickly assessed the situation and got a cart. I probably squealed like a school girl.

There were still a couple of Little Gems in stock. I stood there starring at them. $35 was pretty enticing. So I kept trying to think where I would put another one. Eventually I would like to replace our bamboo with several of these, but that project isn’t happening any time soon. I finally decided to pick one up and figure it out after I got home. I also scored a couple of pear trees for $11 a piece for the side yard, a few small Nandinas and some really cute coral bells (Heuchera ‘Circus’).

Once I got home I spent some time moving my new tree around, trying to find a place for it. We have some more sun near our shed after some tree trimming (which removed a large portion of our old birch tree) and removing dead branches from the cedar.  I decided that it was time to add the planting bed next to the shed. And if I strategically placed the new magnolia I could provide an additional buffer to the street. In the diagram above you can see the view that I am trying to block. It is hard to photograph but the general idea is that when you are on the deck this will eventually provide some more visual separation between the backyard and the street and adjacent driveway. It also allows for the tree to be out where I can touch the leaves and admire the flowers in the spring.

I filled in the remainder of the planting bed with some of my new coral bells and some miscellaneous other plants and hostas. I’m not quite sure whether this falls into part sun or not. This area tends to get dry due to the large tree roots. I think it may take some experimenting to get the bed to succeed!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I’ve got a long overdue date night scheduled with Mr. S!

This past Sunday we took a little trip out to Yellow Springs Farm and Nursery to check out the Native plants and their well known goat cheese. The cheese was delicious, the goats were cute and the kids made friends with Rosco the dog.

First off we said hello to the goats, who were not surprisingly very friendly. They were waiting to be let out into the field for a snack.

Rosco spent the time playing with the kids. He taught Sam how to play fetch. Sam followed this by saying that clearly he needs a dog. Of course I don’t think the 2 feline family members of our family would agree about that.

Maisie took charge of the camera. Not a bad shot! It is always fascinating to see the world from a small person’s point of view.

We tried their delicious goat cheeses! I highly recommend them, if you can find them! I think I will have to place an order sometime soon.

As for plants I wasn’t looking for anything in particular for the yard, except a super hardy native street tree. We decided on an American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana). It may not be the most exciting tree, but it should be the right size, super sturdy, non-aggressive roots and it is native. They were really helpful and pointed out that this is widely used in the City of Philadelphia with good success. SOLD!

Our new tree is about 3 1/2′ tall. I think it should be a good size for planting in our diminutive grass strip between the sidewalk and curb. As much as a I love a big tree, I have had better luck with smaller specimens taking over time.

We also picked up a couple of beautiful grasses for the front yard. We picked out 2 varieties, both with reddish tinges in the fall. I think my favorite is Panicum virgatum ‘Shanendoah‘ with nice plumbs on top. It should get to be about 5’ tall.

The second grass is Little Bluestem ‘Prairie Blues’ which will get to be about 3 1/2-4′ tall. The color on it is really amazing! I am going to try and fit them in around the nandina in the front yard. They should be happy there with lots of sun and relatively dry soil. Hopefully I can get all of this planted this weekend. The weather looks good, of course there are several small jungles of weeds laughing at me. They better watch out, because I am hoping that their days are numbered!

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend!