The backyard as seen from the 'sunroom' off the computer room. The playhouse moved with the previous owners (12 October 2012).
The backyard as seen from the 'sunroom' off the computer room. The playhouse moved with the previous owners (12 October 2012).
The backyard as seen from the 'sunroom' off the computer room. The playhouse moved with the previous owners (12 October 2012).
Meanwhile back in Providence, Jonathan took this photo of a Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas, a dogwood relative with edible fruit) on the Brown Univeristy campus. He used to harvest the fruit from the trees on campus and make jam, and would really like to have one in the yard here in StP (04 April 2013).
A last 'before' shot of the back yard - this one from the sunroom on the second floor (10 June 2013).
The work commences - the old molded cement path and most of the old planting have been pulled up (30 July 2013).
The line of variagated dogwoods and arbor start to define the various 'rooms'. The arbor was there temporarily for the benefit of the August Party. It would sit on the back porch until it was permanently installed after the stone walkway was placed (17 Aug 2013).
The basalt fountain is in place and running. Don bought the individual pillars pre-drilled and set them in a pan of concrete. The pump below has three valves to adjust the flows independently to one's liking (28 Aug 2013).
The lily pond and bog are filled for the moment. I asked Don to include a bog filter with the pond so we could plant some bog plants (e.g. irises) along with water lilies. The planting of the pond and bog will have to wait until next spring (12 Oct 2013).
The three raised beds are tucked beside the garage where Don moved the fence back. The arbor, now permanently installed, will support my request for a 'Niobe' clematis come next spring (02 Nov 2013).
The lily pond is drained and covered for the winter. The fountain is also drained, but the stone spiral is in place. To the right of the fountain is Jonathan's Cornus mas. Don will be back in the spring to add the perennials. Across the red stone path from the fountain is the minature conifer garden (02 Nov 2013).
The backyard view on the morning of 21 Feb 2014 - the bird feeders were my addition to provide additional entertainment for the cats and humans (21 Feb 2014).
For two weeks, this was the most hazardous part of my commute to work (29 Mar 2014).
I purchased the water lily, iris, and other water plants from Soni Forsman - widely acknowledged as the local expert on water lilies (08 Jun 2014).
I seem to have hardly taken any photos in the back yard this summer. These purple and yellow carrots are the produce of my vegetable garden (04 Oct 2014).
More garden produce - the rainbow chard was a success (04 Oct 2014).
This maple tree is in Amanda and Andy Rorvig's yard east of us. We've been picking maple seedings out of the garden (22 Oct 2014).
The strawberries occupied the bed at the end. (25 Oct 2014).
The water lily is tucked into a 5-gallon bucket to hibernate in the basement for the winter (25 Oct 2014).
We get ocassional visits from Cooper's hawks (Accipiter cooperii). We've sat on our front porch and seen them fly by at eye level. Other birds get very scarce when they're around (15 Feb 2015).
Two years after installation, the garden is beginning to fill in nicely (04 Jul 2015).
Close-up of the basalt fountain in the geometric bed of ornamental grass (04 Jul 2015).
Looking through the arbor to the vegetable garden, there are two types of clematis on the left is the Niobe I requested, and on the right is another lighter purple variety that Don planted (04 Jul 2015).
The pond is flourishing (along with the string algae) - there was a second lily bloom just below the edge of the pond. (04 Jul 2015).
Free range strawberries - these are the result of runners from the bed above (04 Jul 2015).
One of the beds with tomatoes and pole beans growing up the trellis made from a concrete reinforcement wire grid (04 Jul 2015).
A view back towards the house from the pond (04 Jul 2015).