Gardening Obsession

I'm obsessed with my garden...it's to the point that tonight when we got home from the Chastains I took a flashlight out to my new clematis plant and "snuck up" on the critters eating the blooms...and when I squished the full little earwigs between my fingers I felt victorious. They had eluded my attempts at traps (including rolled up newspaper soaked in St. Pat's Beer) and destroyed the beautiful new blooms each time they appeared. Not anymore! I have also been spending a lot of time reading the Colorado State Extension gardening website and have devoured books on annuals and perennials that thrive in Colorado. Gardening is one big science project and I find it fascinating and beautiful. I'm thankful that we have this house to work on and can't wait to see what it becomes in the years ahead.

We've had a lot of fun hanging out with friends and trying to relax. Here are some pictures that sum up what we've been up to.


Tonight we went to see Blayne fly his new plane. The rainbow in the background was amazing.


Last week I had Erin for an afternoon so I took her by Eric's work on his break. They shared a brownie, which we found out later was her first. Sorry Deborah!


Here's a picture of our back porch area. Eric added solar lights to help him see at night when he takes the dogs out and around the house. The tiki lights are really cool too.


Eric's first pepper! Yummy!


I rode my bike to the Bungalow in Windsor 4 times last week (120 miles total!!!) and saw this while I was there. Crazy! I wonder if Cache would fit on the back of my bike...


Here is a before picture of the crazy area between our house and the neighbor's house. I went to a local nursery and gave a name to all the vines I cursed while thinning. 5 years worth of growth...not fun.


And here is the after shot of the overgrown area. There is still a lot to do, but I'll get to it soon. We plan to make the cement box into an annual bed and I split my way overgrown iris plants and put them along the edge. By the way, I have enough extra iris rhizomes to give everyone all they want...so let me know if you want any!!!


Eric did a great job putting the shutters up on every window around the house. The color really added what they call "curb appeal" on the home and garden network shows.


Here is Erin relaxing on another afternoon when I had her. She always steals the show with her elaborate vocabulary and blonde hair and eyelashes. She blew kisses and said "bye y'all" to a cashier without being prompted...


If you were wondering what that huge bin and tumbler is in my back yard, they are to make this wonderful compost. I start all our non meat table scraps and throw them in the ground bin. Then after a week or so I transfer it in the large tumbler so that I can mix it daily. After about 3 weeks I have the best compost on the market. I think it is what made the peppers and tomatoes grow so fast!


Here is that compost grown tomato & pepper garden.