the Big Backyard

As I mentioned, the Big Backyard is mostly in shade most of the year due to the three mature pecan trees and the maple and the magnolia and the new shop barn on the west side. The old vegetable garden lower left corner on the east side, the barn upper right corner on the west side. That fourth tree in the center far distance is a native pecan and our property line is about 5 feet beyond it.

Looking along the side of the house and garage to the magnolia and maple.

The barn with it's little shade garden where the buddha hangs out. I'm still working on it and, in fact, robbed the edgers to put someplace else last weekend. In front of the door on the right is where the little red lilies were blooming but they've gone by now.

The buddha sits patiently waiting for me to finish his garden.

Behind the barn along the west side is the long day lily bed and while I do have day lilies other places, most of them are in here. This garden was here when we bought the place but I have added to it. From the left...the baby blue eyes going to seed, morning glory bush, confederate rose, society garlic, swamp lily, day lilies, bulbine, firecracker bush, elephant garlic, nile lilies, rose, day lilies, amaryllis, spiderwort, daylilies, ground orchid, and dewberries on the end. There's also some salvia and verbena in there. The evening primrose in front is past it's prime.

Beyond the shade on the back south side is this little garden. It started out 4' x 4' for strawberries and has been added onto. This is where the poppies were so gorgeous last year. Right now it has crinum lilies and bush beans and once I clean out the evening primrose on the left end, I'll plant okra in there. Eventually, I'll put the red hibiscus there...maybe.

Beyond it you can see the old old burn pile which is now the wild flower patch. This lies just outside our property line. The bluebonnets and evening primrose are fading and the salvia, the queen anne's lace and clasping leaved coneflowers are now coming into bloom. Past that the green mound is the new old burn pile (we haul most everything over to the burn pile at the shop now) which is sort of a brush pile and surrounded by field sunflowers and beyond that the 12 Acre Field.

The southeast corner has this storage shed and little garden. You can see the beginning of the Wild Space and the rain tree and an oak behind it on the right. There's also a big cedar on the left. We don't use this anymore now that we have the barn and I expect one day we will see it has fallen into the ground as the Wild Space is doing it's best to encompass it.

Besides the native peach tree which was here, I put in bulbine, day lilies, philippine lily (the big shrub), miniature gladiolas, spider lilies, and amaryllis.

Moving inward to the pecan on the southeast side is my planned garden for the azaleas. One is already in the ground and the others in pots.

It looked like that but now looks like this after last Sunday (those are the edgers I took from the buddha's garden).

Next: the side and front