The year of (fill in the blank)

2018 was the year of the wood chip mulch, with a giant pile arriving in late February and an even larger pile in late September. The neighbors probably think we're nuts, especially since most of it disappeared to the back yard. The last pile was over 100 wheelbarrow loads.

2018 was the year of watering, with an unusually dry May and June leading into our typically dry July and August. It seemed like everything needed extra water: the native bushes and trees at the bottom of the yard, planted in 2016, bushes and trees all around the upper yard (woodland border, north fence and winter garden) planted in 2017, and the brand new plants on the front slope.

2018 was the year of structural changes, with the lower railroad tie retaining wall replaced by rock and the upper wall replaced by a new front slope. We had to haul in more dirt to go above the rock wall, and of course wood chip mulch in both areas. More than a few plants were added too.

New front slope, late January

What will 2019 be the year of?

Erratic weather is a good guess since we now have 4 inches of snow on the ground and temperatures well below normal, after all of January felt more like March.

Ceramic fish don't mind the snow

Less watering, I hope. I think the bushes and trees planted in 2016 are doing well enough that I can water them a lot less. The wood chip mulch helps too. But of course I'm already planning to plant more...

Better screening along the north fence line. This is where a lot of the last batch of wood chips went. I'm putting in Pacific wax myrtle (myrica californica), tall Oregon grape (mahonia aquifolium), smooth sumac (rhus glabra), garrya elliptica if I can find it, oak leaf hydrangea, and thinking about smaller plants to mix in. I have some of the plants already, sitting in half dug holes with the pots covered by mulch, just waiting until we're past this cold spell to finish planting.

Not my favorite view, yet

More solid pathways all around the yard. Some areas need some stepping stones to keep the grass from turning to mud, other areas may just need more defined paths through the mulch. And I definitely need to make more stained glass stepping stones. Playing with concrete and glass is fun.

This path to the woodland border is turning to mud

And of course the weeding, pruning, and pest control that's needed to keep everything growing the way I want it to. The wood chip mulch helps enormously with the weeding, but the slugs and small pests (rabbits or squirrels?) are out already. More yard work keeps coming, but of course you realize by now that it's never supposed to end, and it gets me out of the house every day!

Wintersweet, chimonanthus praecox

Garden tour, part 3

Crocuses!

Now that I've lured you in with flowers, lets finish up this garden tour! In part 1, we walked down the north side of the yard and in part 2, up the south side.

I've been playing around with maps, starting with a 2015 satellite photo. I want to find a better editing tool, the one that I have doesn't draw curves, but this will give you an idea of the shape of the yard and location of everything. I like seeing all of the areas that I've been working on but it's a little scary how much lawn is still left. 

I've talked about the two railroad tie retaining walls that we're hoping to replace this year, and more work to do on the shadier side of the hillside. I need to look at paths too and not quite sure what to do for those. I've left grass in the paths for now, but don't want to deal with mowing most of them - and keeping grass in paths from spreading into the beds would be an ongoing headache.

In the front side yard, I re-used bricks that were lying around. They're not my favorite, not a look I want to repeat elsewhere, but they're functional. This path could stay grass, it's easy enough to cut with the electric trimmer.

Path along the south side of the garage

In the woodland garden, I'm considering stepping stones with groundcover plants. I made a few concrete stepping stones with stained glass in the fall before it got too cold and wet. But it would take a lot of stepping stones to fill in these paths.

Paths in the woodland garden, looking west

Paths in the woodland garden, looking south

Paths in the woodland garden, looking west

The bottom hillside is complicated by being very steep. I had put in stepping stones on the sunny side, and could continue that across the top of the shadier side. 

Stepping stones across the sunny hillside

Path across across the shadier side of the hillside

Stepping stones are also adequate for walking up and down the sunny side of the hillside to pick raspberries, but I need to be able to haul a wheelbarrow up the shadier side. I just don't know what to make a path out of that isn't steps and won't slide on the steep slope. 

Stepping stones along the raspberries

Paths down and across the shadier side of the hillside

So I'm still thinking about the paths, let me know if you have any ideas. I hope you enjoyed seeing a more complete view of my yard, this has certainly helped me clarify what I have to work on this year!