Happenings in the house of Hoke: More landscaping projects in the Zen Garden!

So before we left for vacation I put poor Tommy to work before he's REALLY at work when football camp starts on August 1st. We have this side yard that was really never completed... at least to fit the rest of the overall Zen Garden theme! We had grass that would not grow on the side yard. And with three dogs we REALLY had grass that would not grow! So we decided (make that I decided...lol!) that we should yank out the grass and continue the stone path, mulch, trees and perennials all the way around the house! Plus I thought it would be very cool to have Tommy build me a raised garden bed as well since the tiny patch I have on the side of the house barely constitutes a garden. So the raised bed was the first project. And my husband being the amazingly awesome guy and all around good egg can never seem to say no to one of my "projects" for him!

You can see where the grass tried to grow...unsuccessfully with 3 dogs

aforementioned dogs helping Dad build the new thing in their yard

at the end of this bed is a huge white generator that we had installed during the big power outage during Christmas this year

it's coming along really well

3 beds, the center one raised for tomatoes, pea pods, peppers, lettuce and squash

Done and fabulous!

I planted my little plants and the rest we will have to wait and see. I don't get a ton of sun back here so it's an experiment to see what does well and what does not

Had to fence it from running dogs who decided that running through it was great fun

Dangit! A fence! How are we supposed to play in this new thing with a fence around it?

The plants were looking great when we got back from vacation! Squash and peppers on this end...

clearly the partly shady backyard hasn't affected the growth of these at all. Tomato has completely

overgrown on the lettuce! I am making notes for more efficient planting next year

our tiny little patch up front with more tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, mint and cilantro

This was taken before vacation...

and now!!

not wanting to waste any space I even planted jalapeños, poblanos, cayenne

and matchstick peppers in pots on our deck rail!

Now onto the BIG landscape change back here! We had our favorite landscaper Instant Shade come out and finish the "Zenlike" yard for us with a stone path to the back, mulch, japanese maple, dogwood tree and quite a few other beautiful shrubs and perennials.

it looks so much nicer now! No more yellow grass with dirt patches! You can see the garden bed on the side is huge now!

some sort of bug got into my peppers and chewed off all of the lower leaves so I'm not sure I'll be getting anything from them. And the squash isn't doing too great either. Probably not enough sun.

More notes for next year...