Betsy Brown Thumb

OK all my green-thumbed friends, I need some gardening advice. Here's my backyard:

I have this hill of rocks that I threw wildflowers seeds all over when the snow finally stopped late Spring. Now I have a bunch of things growing, but I don't know if it's weeds or flowers. What seemed like a great idea is not turning out to be such a smart plan. However, I do have a few flowers starting to bloom.Cute, huh? They are pink, purple and white. I have several patches now in bloom. Fun!

Although, this is how most of the yard looks.
And that's after pulling what I know are weeds. (My mom informed me what I thought were poppies were actually weeds, sad.)

Here's my biggest problem. We planted 4 rose bushes. Two are looking good and two look like thisHelp. This rose is called the Ingrid Bergman rose and is a beautiful deep red. I don't know why the leaves are turning brown. Do I need to water more? less? fertilize? pesticide?

This is our other problem areaIt's very sandy soil that is eroding away from the rocks. (One rock actually fell and rolled into our house- it may stay there and be landscaped around, as it is extremely heavy.) I heard that day lilies do well in sand and may help with the erosion. Any other ideas?

This is my favorite part of the backyard. This tree was overgrown when we bought the house. (It was a rental and the yard was in bad shape). We trimmed it up and now it hangs perfectly over the lawn to provide a little shaded area. I planted some bright orange flowers beneath it that have done very well.
This is another tree that we have pruned. It had branches growing along the ground and huge thorns on it. Rick and I were scraped up for weeks (worth it). We still have a little pruning to do on it, but it may wait until next year. We now have to figure out what to do with the hillside. I'm thinking a hardy ground-cover.So there it is. I'm up for any advice/ideas.

FINALLY

I can finally write another I-love-my-bike post. Last weekend for the first time in probably two years, I loved being out on my bike instead of just being miserable that I was so out of shape. Over the weekend, Rick and I did a loop from our house, to the temple, to downtown Draper and back. Lots of hills, not too far. Last night, we did one of our favorite rides from the East side of the airport out to Saltair. Flat and long. Both were wonderful.

Honestly, I have to say everything in life is wonderful right now. While I was riding last weekend, I was thinking how balanced I feel in my life. I know this is rare so I'm enjoying every second while it's here. Over the weekend we did yard work, errands, biked, took the kids to a carnival, had some down time, and dinner with family. I'm so in love with my husband I can hardly stand it. Work is going really well and business is finally picking up. I have nothing to complain about and everything to be thankful for. How great is that?

CSA

This year we joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). We paid a local farmer in February to help with seed, etc and all summer we get a weekly harvest of produce. Here is what we are enjoying this week.

Peas, zucchini, beets, carrots, lettuce and chard (anyone have a good chard recipe?)

Originally, I joined with a friend and we split a share, but we found neither of us could eat all the veggies in a week. Another friend joined us this week, so the above picture is 1/3 of a share. Probably perfect for us.

The veggies are organically grown locally, harvested in the morning and delivered to us that afternoon. I actually got the boys to snack on fresh baby carrots this evening. We just get whatever is ready to harvest that week and love being surprised with what will show up.

We are definitely open to any good recipes out there. Please share.

Flowers

A year ago this week my dear friend Shari passed away from lung cancer. Shari was known for her beautiful yard, especially the roses and irises in the front yard. Last fall, just after we moved into the new house, I called and asked her family if I could come take some iris starts for my new yard. Never having had a yard before, I was pretty clueless in the where and how to plant department, so I just dug some random holes and hoped for the best.

It has been fun watching them grow this Spring. Since they were no longer blooming when I took the starts, I had no idea what color I was getting. Shari had a wide variety, and I took from various locations in her yard. Here is a photo of what is currently in bloom.


Aren't they pretty. I love coming home every day, seeing the progress of growth and thinking about Shari. It's been such a fun memorial to her and a way to think of her and smile on a regular basis.

California

Summer has officially begun. The boys had school until Thursday and Rick had school the following Monday so we decided we better take a quick trip with the little break. We had the boys miss the last day of school and left Wednesday right after school. We arrived in Fountain Valley Thursday early afternoon and headed right for Huntington Beach.


Zane and Isaac with Huntington Beach Pier in the background.

We buried Isaac in the sand.

Rick and Isaac helped me harvest shells for my shell garden.

A fun afternoon in the sun!


Friday we spent at Magic Mountain. Online tickets were only $33, so we opted to that instead of Disneyland. We enjoyed some seriously scary roller coasters. Good times!!

Saturday we headed to LA to take in some sites. The boys have never been to Hollywood. Here they are outside of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Zane was stoked to find Robert Downey Jr. It was just added a couple of weeks prior.

We stopped to see the La Brea Tar pits then walked to a letterbox near a turtle pond. Hidden with the box was some food to feed the turtles. I was hoping to do a lot more letter boxing on the trip but we couldn't find the other one we looked for, and didn't have time to look for others.

Turtle pond.


We ended our LA excursion at China Town. Here we are having a little snack at the Phoenix bakery. I've been to SF and NY China Town and have to say LA was a little disappointing.

We ended our evening at the Holbrook's (who were excellent hosts the whole week) playing Rock Band.


On our drive home we stopped in Las Vegas and went to the M&M store (4 stories of M&M paraphernalia)

We also went to the Coke Museum. For $7 you can taste Coke products from all over the world. Rick was happy we all got to sample the icky, bitter Italian drink; and I was happy my favorite Fanta from Central America was included. Vegas was insanely hot though and neither Rick nor I enjoy it as a destination. An hour or so was plenty to stretch our legs enough to finish the car trip home.

Thanks my fun family for a great trip !