2012 Gardening

I've got a problem with my yard.

There's not enough sun.

When we first moved in, I had the trees trimmed and there was plenty of sun in the backyard to grow tomatoes and other veggies. Two years later... the trees have grown and now my "garden patch" is shade. DAMNIT. Last year I got about 3 tomatoes, TONS of basil, TONS of jalepenos (which Rusty liked the best...) and only two banana peppers.

So the trees need to be trimmed again. But this time I want a quote to know how much it would be to just take one HUGE tree down. I know. Shoot me. I want to take a tree down. But here's the thing about it - the tree sits at the corner of our house, eventually the roots will probably wreck the foundation of our house, they might topple the fence over, and I swear, this tree pees something every 6 weeks. If it's not those stupid helicopter thingys, it's leaves. If it's not leaves it's something else. Not to mention all of this stuff goes straight into our gutters which means that either Bimmer Man or I have to climb up onto the roof to clean them out. And we have to clean them out at least once a month. Seriously. it's a huge pain. Did I mention that one branch sort of grows funny and every time it storms it looks like it'll take down power lines to our house? YIKES. So I think that needs to go.

But in any case... this year I'm going to have to do tomato plants in pots around the yard in the sunny spots. I know - we're going to be those "weird" people that have plant pots in strange areas of the yard. Whatever. Call me weird - but my tomatoes taste awesome. Fresh BLT anyone?

And there's a few new flowers that I want to try too (I go for perennials):

This is a Gayflower a/k/a Blazing Star I think I'm going to put this in the back of the yard by the compost pile. It drains like you wouldn't believe back there and it's in the sun for about 7 hours per day.

Old Fashioned Bleeding Hearts - This is another perennial that I want to try. I have major plant envy of a neighbor down the street with HUGE Bleeding Hearts. I want to grow HUGE Bleeding Hearts (the only thing I can grow really well in the front beds are Cosmos, Russian Sage, and Bee Balm). Bleeding Hearts are for the shade and do well all summer long. Le sigh. I need plants that do well all year and not just for a few weeks in the spring.

I'd like to plant Astilbe but again... it's early to midsummer blooming and I already have so many of those plants that by August our front beds are just green. Boo to that! My plan is to go to the local nursery in June and start hounding the people that work there about what I can plant that is going to bloom in July/August/September. Well, besides vegetables. Maybe I should just fill our front beds with veggies!

Happy Friday!!!