Featured Garden - Our Hoops Loop Garden

 Welcome to our home! We built our house in the spring and summer of 2012, and though it wasn't finished, we moved in late in October 2012. Every year we've managed to get a little more done on the yard, but I can never seem to get ahead of the  quack grass and weeds. I've resigned myself to the fact that as much as I love flowers, I'm a really lousy gardener! It makes me realize just how much time and effort my parents put into their garden at the farm. (The Garden of Ede'n Gerald)
 I'm sure people thought we were crazy, but while we were still building the house, we took some time to landscape the front yard, and plant this False Spirea hedge. Clearly, it loves the sand here! It just keeps spreading and producing suckers for me to transplant to other parts of the yard. I'm so glad we took the time to plant it. I love the way it encloses our front patio.
 So many of the perennials that we brought from our home near Portage La Prairie, didn't survive the move. I'm excited about any plant that can survive our little piece of desert!

This photo was taken last year, but it shows the patio behind the hedge. 

Every year, my husband, Brian, plants Geraniums, in memory of his mother, Alice Bolack. One day, I'll scan some old photos and post Alice's garden here.

I'm cheating here...this photo is from 2013. I wanted to show my Daylilies, but don't have a good picture....translation- they're now full of quack grass!

These next photos are of the back yard.

This stump is from a cottonwood tree, and was brought with us from our previous home. Along with the perennials around it, we apparently brought two little maple trees that are doing great. We dare not move them, because they're sure to die if we do!

Because we have very few trees on our property, there is no shelter from the wind, so we decided to fence part of our back yard, creating 'rooms'. We used pallets, moving crates, and wire for much of the fencing. We got some Virginia Creepy cuttings from a neighbour three years ago, and planted along this fence and trellis. With all the rain we've had this year, it has really taken off.

These irises are in the flower bed near the hedge at the front, and were some of my first blooms this spring.

This spring, we built a raised planter along the pergola to enclose the patio. We've tried a few times to get grape vines growing but most of them didn't make it. We're hoping they will do better in the planter. When this photo was taken we hadn't yet put up the wire for the vines to climb. One day, we hope to see the pergola covered in vines!

This patio was one of our projects for this summer. We started with patio blocks, and then Brian found us some bricks to finish off under the deck.

We needed hand rails for the steps, but Brian couldn't just put a simple rail up...he created this beautiful planter for me! All that's left to do, is the cap around the edge.

And this is the pergola wall with the wire installed. So far, the grape vines are loving it!

In the background, you can see a bit of our daughter's playhouse...another work in progress!

Still very much a work in progress, but I hope you enjoyed this little peak at my yard and garden.