Spring at the Shed...

Looks like all that work was worth it!

Of course this is just natural...the young forest across the alley where Belle likes to hunt...

Here, you can see some of the daffodils, the new young crabapple tree, one of the baby hollies, and of course, the shed!

The holly is blooming...profusely!

The ancient lilac did better this year than ever before...

Our original lilacs, forsythia, dogwood and crabapple are lovely this year...

And below, some of our surprise daffs...I thought I was getting a bag of all one kind, at Costco...instead, we have more kinds than I knew existed!  They bloom at slightly different times, so watching what's next has been fun.

Unfortunately, looks like neither of the red twig dogwood made it, and one of the viburnums has died, but the butterfly bush and the other viburnum are doing well...I want to plant a cedar, to block the neighbor's trash view, but it's all coming along nicely, especially for a very shady lot.

Landscaping for wildlife at the shed

I put this one up on FLickr so I could add notes as to what's what--although of course the gooseberries, mulberry, honeysuckly, and red twig dogwood are all out in front of the shed!  Anyway, here's  the link to the version with notes.

 I USED to have raised bed vegetable gardens there, but the trees have really grown up...

One of our many squirrels.  Where's Waldo??

Viburnum on the way to being berries!

This is the smaller viburnum...

Red twig dogwood flowers

...and the smaller of the red twigs.  This one is round and busy, the other is tall and lanky...

Wild/volunteer mulberries--the birds and I share...

We planted two hollies...for fun and for red berries!

The wild gooseberry by the back alley...

Feeders!  Four of them, now, out the French doors.  A peanut feeder on the left, finch feeder, hummingbird feeder, and the oriole feeder that gets soundly ignored!

New crabapple...these are supposed to turn orange in the fall!

The old comfrey...

The butterfly bush will have red flowers...

NOT a blue muffin viburnum.  It's Autumn Jazz, would have been nice to notice that before we planted it, but oh well...

Planning and dreaming...

Planning and dreaming, originally uploaded by Cathy (Kate) Johnson.

As I've lived with the shed almost daily since June, I've envisioned some changes to the immediate vicinity...a platform feeder visible from my chair, a fire pit near the deck, a crabapple tree to attract birds, a big cedar to block the view of my neighbor's metal shed...

Actually, the house is abandoned since a fire a couple of years ago. The owner started to rehab it and someone broke in and stole all the copper...he said to hell with it.

This is the view...not bad, and I don't see it from my desk or the chair, but if I'm on the deck...not so great.  A tree would be better, and provide a bit more shade in the summer as well as cover for the birds!