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One of the nice things about living in a cold winter climate like Utah is that I can grow flower bulbs that just won't grow in a warm climate like Queensland. I planted a bunch of tulips in the front and back gardens in November 07. This year they have multiplied and put on quite a wonderful display.
Unfortunately, deer like tulips, and although they left them alone last year, this year they have discovered the ones in the backyard, and have come back on successive occasions to eat over 50 of the pretty flowers, leaving us with just the green leaves on display! It seems (for now) that the rock wall in the front yard is deterrent enough to keep them away. We are experimenting with "ivory soap on a stick" to try and save the remaining plants in the backyard. It makes for an interesting addition to the garden!
Spring, and some warmer weather is finally here! We decided that we would add a vegetable garden as our "yard project" this year. We bought 3 pieces of 8x4x2 lumber and Mark built a "box" to house the vegie plants. We then filled the box with lots of "goodies" like organic compost, peat moss and manure (based on a recipe from our local Lowes hardware store).
Heather stained the box with some polyeurethane that we had left over from doing our patio furniture, and Mark added some decorative caps to the corners. (He had lots of fun playing with his miter saw once he discovered it could do angles other than 90 degrees!)
We're not too sure what will grow well here so we've planted quite a mixture of things we like to eat including broccoli, zucchini, lettuce, spinach, snap peas, mint, basil, parsley, dill and the "fixin's" for a good salsa - tomatoes, tomatillos, bell peppers (capsicum to those of you in Aus), onions and cilantro. Here's hoping that the deer that occasionally pass through our yard aren't feeling hungry for some tasty seedlings!
Our lives have been pretty quiet since our return from Australia, so there hasn't been a lot to "blog" about. We have been skiing once or twice a week every week through January & February - but there's only so many times that's of interest in a blog! Just thought I'd share this wonderful winter view that we have from our kitchen window, looking out across the snow-covered back yard and neighborhood to the picturesque Wasatch Mountains. How lucky we are! It always lifts my spirits when I look at the view. The snow hasn't been as heavy this year as last, but still enough to keep the ground permanently covered since December.
Red Butte Gardens is a local botanic garden in the foothills behind the University of Utah. There is an open air amphitheatre there and during the Summer they run a series of music concerts in the gardens. On Friday night Mark & I went to see the New York based Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. Wynton is a trumpet player who has won 9 Grammy awards and is the artistic director at the Lincoln Center. He went to the same high school in New Orleans as Mark's brother & sister. We took some wine and a picnic dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant 3 hours of jazz music in the gardens in the cool of the evening as the sun went down.
Thought I'd start the blog off with a couple of recent pics of our house in Utah. After the long, cold, snowy winter it's nice to be able to spend time in the garden and enjoy dinners on our deck again. We're pretty pleased with how our landscaping turned out. We built the deck, installed the sprinkler system, designed the garden beds, laid the sod (turf) and planted all the plants ourselves. Now all we need is a couple of years growth so that it feels like a garden!
One of the nice things about living in a cold winter climate like Utah is that I can grow flower bulbs that just won't grow in a warm climate like Queensland. I planted a bunch of tulips in the front and back gardens in November 07. This year they have multiplied and put on quite a wonderful display.
