April 2017

The month of April started off cold and rainy. The grape Hyacinths and creeping phlox started off the season with great color.

 Grape Hyacinth along pathway

 Still have Daffodils in the front even though I keep moving them to the back. 

 Still wondering if this Chicory was a mistake to add to the landscape. It self seeds everywhere but the goldfinches love it.

 My earliest blooming peony. I some times even opens when there is still snow.

I never get enough violets. My turtles love them also. 

 My Primrose started flowering in February and are still going strong. I have a stray cat that keeps raiding my pond and catching my fish. I find the bodies all over the yard with there heads chewed off.

 My Primrose 

These white hyacinths were buried under a bunch of  plywood when I first bought my house. I dug them up and moved them. They have come up every year since 2009 and bloom every year since 2010.

 My pond plants are off to a good start. 

 Red and yellow primrose.

Another tiny primrose 

purple and yellow primrose. 

 My waterlilies broke the surface of the water a lot earlier than every one else I know with ponds in Pittsburgh.

 I got more bluegills. The other ones. Hopefully some of these will live.

The bluegill are the same size as the goldfish right now. 

My white flowering dogwood Finally  has a lot of flowers this year. Last year was the first year it flowered and it only got one flower.

Primrose in full bloom. 

Lilac 

Hyacinths left over from Easter 

Another hyacinth left from Easter. 

 Tulips. My tulips actually got to bloom this year because the deer did not eat them.

Tulips and Hyacinth. 

A Tulip that has not bloomed for at least 3 years. 

 Flowering Cherry

 Flowering Cherry

 These were small fragments of iris left in yard after giving away a ton of them last year. I did not think they would seriously grow but they have and the are flowering.

 I new rose bush Blue girl. I felt I had to rescue it. It was one of those rose bushes you see dipped in wax with the roots cut way back and packed in a plastic bag with sawdust.

 My first peony to open this year.

Beauty of Moscow Lilac 

 Jose re blooming lilac

 creeping phlox

 lilac

 dogwood.

 Back yard pond 

Fish 

Tulips  that were not eaten by the deer.

 My Japanese maple died back except for the top branch.

 The first Black swallowtail to visit my yard this year.

Lily of the Valley starting to open. 

 I love this Primrose.

 Lilac

 Daffodil.

Persimmon tree

 dogwood

 tulips and hyacinths

Tulip 

 Phlox

Flowering Cherry. 

lilac 

Dames Rocket 

Columbine. 

 Iris

Carolina Sweet Shrub

 Japanese Maple with dead branches removed.

 Forget me not

 Snow in Summer

 Coral Bells.

Miniature dwarf bearded iris Beetlejuice. 

MDB Iris 

 MDB Iris

 dogwood.

 I finally started cutting down the churches dead trees.

 I am also removing all of the barberry bushes. I hate these with a passion.

 Hasta La Vista baby.

 My aftermath

 Peony.

 Another on to bite the dust.

 I want the entire side of my house planted with lilacs of different sizes and colors.

Re blooming Lilac 

Peony 

 Iris

 Finally the house is starting to look good. Home Depot never did finish The job with the siding around the bay window area. Never hire Home Depot All of the negative reviews are true .

 Will be replacing the rest of the windows in the next few months.

 I can not believe this is the same house I bought in 2009.

 There are a lot of windows in this place. I can not wait till they are all replaced. Should be done by June.

 Lilac

Coral bell 

 I bought seeds from Amazon for yellow violets. They were all purple except for one single yellow flower.

 I moved my orchids outside for the summer.

Lupine started from seed. 

Stained Glass Window Project

I do not remember if I ever mentioned here that my house used to belong to the Church next door. It was used for the rectory and in its day was a beautiful place. When the church gave it to a family from the congregation they were supposed to just pay the taxes on the place. They did not do that and tore the place up inside and out. When they were ready to loose it in a bank repossession they removed stained glass windows and pretty much anything of value. They even caught the second floor on fire. The fire resulted in damage to all three floors. The fire men had to remove parts of the walls and ceilings to put the fire out. The church gave the family money to make repairs but they took the money and ran. This left the house unlivable. The house sat empty for a few years and sold to another person who came in and tore the place up even more. I was once again taken in a foreclosure and again sat empty for several years. I bought the place in 2009 and it sat empty for 3 years as I did work to get it so that I could get the utilities turned on and live in it.

Since moving in I have fixed the plumbing, put light fixtures in all the rooms, painted, insulated, remodeled the kitchen, and first floor bathroom, replaced the roof gutters down spouts soffit and fascia, and landscaped the entire yard. I am now trying to reflect my wildlife habitat theme onto the design of the house. I have added a lot of lost details to the house and now I am working on stained glass window designs. I am unable to afford to have the designs done in real stained glass so I am creating designs and having them printed on clear PVC as window clings. 

I have done a Saint Francis of Assisi Window that looks out on my wildlife habitat and will be doing windows of ducks, fish, birds, deer, and raccoons.My first duck design has been completed and will be going up soon.

My Saint Francis design.

Saint Francis installed

Wood duck window design.

 Mallard window design. This will be part of a three piece window with mallards  frogs and turtles.

   

It is supposed to snow tonight so I took a few pictures of some of the flowers in bloom around the yard.

Spring is here

Now that spring is here I will start working on my blog a little more. This past winter was mild but towards the end it started to linger and gave us two last minute snow storms. I thought it was going to destroy a lot of my buds and stuff like it did last year. It only damaged a few lilac bushes and a few rose bushes. My Hardy Primrose was blooming and even after it snowed twice the blooms were still looking good. I really like the Hardy Primrose because they require little to no care and the flowers seem to just keep blooming all season long. They are also great for the shady side of the house. Over the mild winter I did loose a bird bath but since I have the pond now and another bird bath its no big deal. I might try to find another one this summer to replace it.

The pond looks good and because of the mild winter I just let the pump run the entire winter. I have been trying to get a jump on removing some of the string algae before it gets to warm and this year I will treat the water to control it. Last year the pond was brand new so it was not much of a problem. Yesterday I re potted the American Lotus (Nelumbo lutea) the native type of lotus that the Native American Indians relied on for food. I was a little concerned about weather or not it survived the winter because I planted it so late last year. I was thrilled to see that it is doing good and I moved it into a larger pot. There were three pieces growing together and I did not want to risk breaking them by trying to divide them so I left them together all in the same pot. This year I am hoping to add some Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera). I think instead of putting it in the pond I will grow it in a barrel and move the goldfish from the pond to the barrel. These are not native species so they do not need to be in the wildlife habitat area but can be placed elsewhere in the yard for my enjoyment.

I have ordered a few new plants for the yard this year. I have some Yellow Trumpet Vine, Sunny Knock Out Rose, A thorn less Climbing Yellow Rose, and others that I think will look good. I do not have much to do around the pond this year so I plan to be able to sit back and enjoy it more. Last year I was so busy with trying to get it all in I did not get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. I am hoping the Crape Myrtle and other plants that were added last year will bloom this year. There is no telling what to expect but I am  looking forward to the new growing season.