Tis that time of the year. Everything is growing, and growing fast! Since our return from the trip, I have been busy either outside or inside the house. Outside it’s gardening, inside it’s spring cleaning. A bit about our garden. It is divided into many sections. There’s a front yard, which mostly has bushes to detract people from getting too close! The entire yard is fenced in to keep our myriad animals from wandering too far out.

Once you enter the gate, there’s the mid-yard (if there is such a term!) where Rosie frequently spends her days. The pumpkin/sunflower patch is also in the mid-yard.

As you move further in, we have a second fence and gate into the backyard. The backyard is where all the fun begins. Upon entering, the first thing you will see is a flower patch. I put this patch in last year. It needs some more flowers that we will put in this year. The flowers here are perennial, meaning, they come back every year. The perennial flower patch is surrounded by hosta. I am hoping to make this patch bigger, although that has to happen very quickly right about now, since the wet spring makes digging easier. We have a mulberry tree in this patch as well.

Walking down the garden path, beyond the flower patch, you will find our perennial, medicinal herb garden. Again, these herbs come back every year. Few herbs in this patch are: marshmallow, yarrow, sage, echinacea, comfrey, korean licorice mint, lemon balm, chamomile and oregano. This patch continues into our vegetable patch. The herb and vegetable patch are separated by a row of flowers.

In our vegetable patch, currently we have asparagus (which is a perennial), garlic (planted last fall) and peas which we put in last month. The rest of the weedy patch needs work. My plan is to put in less vegetables and more herbs and flowers this year. This is because vegetables are easily available during the growing season at the farmer’s market, but herbs are hard to find.

At the end of the vegetable patch is a tulip patch. The tulip patch is in full sun. Tulips need partial sun (that’s why they are so happy in the sunless Netherlands). This fall I will plant many bulbs elsewhere. Beyond the tulip patch we have a little sitting area and our chicken coop. The garden path ends up into our old and new barn.

A word on the chicken coop. Johan made this coop from an old refrigerator affixed horizontally on the old barn. The fridge space serves as a coop and the freezer is where the chickens lay their eggs. There’s a hole at the bottom of the fridge and a ramp. Chickens walk in and out of the fridge home using this hole. The doors of the fridge were replaced by wooden walls. This is a most excellent coop because it is super insulated. Our coop is unheated.

Upon stepping out of the hole, the chickens walk into a nice run area where they spend their days. When we are out in the yard, they are allowed to free range in our yard.

All the above-mentioned are on the left side of our garden path.

To the right, we have a berry patch (raspberry, blackberry, elderberry, blueberry) right opposite the tulip patch. Further in is a greenhouse made from repurposed windows of an old apartment building. In front of the greenhouse is a corn/strawberry patch.

At the far end of the yard is our huge pond that we put in a few years back. It has goldfish and minnows. We go in with a raft and hang out there sometimes.

The rest of the yard has a tall evergreen and bushes. At the farthest end is a wood and tool shed. See pics!

As you can imagine, this yard keeps me busy. Since it is chemical-free, all weeds have to be pulled out and taken care of. Bushes need trimming. Kids, husband and everyone else leave messes which we deal with as time permits.

To cut a long story short, my yard is messy, exciting, busy and very happening. With summer rapidly approaching, our days will be spent here. Now I am off to take some cool pics and work further in my yard.