August 10, 2003 update of our gardens
We had some bad storms on July 20th - a tornado/funnel cloud came through Cedar Rapids, but since then there's been no rain. Luckily we had our soft maples trimmed significantly earlier this spring, so compared to some of our neighbors we only had a minimal amount of branches and limbs in the yard. Many nearby neighbors lost very old and very large trees which took out garages, chimneys, or roofs as a result. Other parts of town were hit much harder and didn't have power for days. Several roofs were blown off some houses. The whole town was a mess. It took the city until recently to pick up all the debris.
Right when the storm started to hit Cedar Rapids I looked outside and saw sideways rain and wind that seemed unreal as the sirens were going off. We grabbed the girls and headed to the basement. Surprisingly enough, the power stayed on except for a very brief flash. We normally live on the worst power grid in Cedar Rapids. I don't know how it stayed on considering all the downed power lines and trees I saw the next couple of days. We got 2 1/2 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. It was crazy.
This is the hosta garden on the north end of our house. The ground is very dry due to the lack of rain, but everything is still green. Even the grass seems to be holding up. The hostas have expanded so well. Even Ann's second garden of hostas on the right looks like it's been there for years. Our next-door neighbor replaced their old privacy fence with a new one recently. We still have "talking space" where the lilac bushes are in the upper right-hand corner.
Here's our front yard. Actually this is where the old stone walkway was located before we cut sod in the back and recycled it in the front. The sod has taken and I only have some "lumps" out towards the street. No big deal.
This is the front of our house. The bridal wreath spirea is going to be trimmed severely and then (hopefully) I can transplant it somewhere else in late September to early October. The bushes barely blooms in the spring time and it's because somebody planted it in the wrong location. I know that trimming it severely will kill any growth and blooms for next year, but a couple years down the road they will look great in their new location.
The other bushes we have will be ripped out. We plan to put in a variety of hostas.
We have four privet hedges growing on the south side of our house. Further down we have more lilac bushes and a couple of forsythia. We can't really plant trees because of the power lines, and the city won't let us put up a fence to block the street due to the easement. What better than privet? These have grown considerably in the past two years. The yellow leaves on the new growth look fantastic through the year. The bushes are dense and lush and luminous. I want to buy a few more of this variety, although I can't remember where I bought them in 2001 - yes, these have only been here a little over 2 years. They grow like mad. Supposedly they'll get 15-20 feet high and quite wide if not pruned. Perfect!
This picture is a bit muddled by the sunlight, but you can see how much the lilacs, burning bushes, and (especially) the viburnum have grown over the past 5 years. They basically obscure the backyard from the road and hide the chain-link fence, which was our intent. Isabel loves to pick the "blueberries" from the viburnum. We had hundreds of blooms on the lilacs. And the burning bushes are amazing in the autumn.
A lovely mess of flowers from the back garden.
