fun in the yard

The grubs have eaten huge chunks of our lawn, the ants are infesting our house and the Asian lily beatles are eating my lilies. I have dubbed spring 2011 the year of the insects.

 

I put Milky Spores, a non-toxic mushroom spore that somehow kills the grubs, on the lawn but as far as I can see it hasn't exactly worked.  It's time to plant grass seed but I don't want to just give those buggers more to snack on.

We are in full yard improvement mode at our house, and this garden was just begging for an upgrade.

We went to Home Depot this morning after on-sale fencing for our back garden and on a whim decided on a stone border for this garden.  It is about a 100% improvement.

While we worked, the girls built worm houses.  They collected worms and put them in the house until they burrowed back into the dirt and they went off in search of other worms.  At one point they were calling out, "Free rides to all worms!" on this little car they have but, as they didn't have a queque of anxious ants waiting, they moved on to the worm house.

I am trying to ward off the lily beatles with a cooper powder (non pestiside)and some strongly worded demands for their deaths. The tiny orange nusences literally can eat lillies in a few days right down to the stalk.  We've been locked in a power struggle for the past few years as they have continued to gorge themselves on my once beautiful lillies.

Then onto a fire, dinner on the grill and toasted marshmallows for dessert!

Homemade coleslaw, quinoa salad, grilled peppers and halibut Sandi's dad caught from the sea. Delicious!

What a wonderful afternoon in the yard!

Before we had kids, Sandi and I used to spend entire spring days outside on yard projects.  It is seriously one of our favorite things to do. Finally this year we can feel it....our kids are content out there with us.  They play, they help, they make up games.  They even have kid work gloves and a mini wheel barrow. No one even complained when we spent an hour at Home Depot this morning.  Ella gets really excited when we beautify the house or yard.  I love her for that.

Sandi has less than 1 week left of a 12 week biochemistry course she has been taking as a pre-requiste to her graduate program.  We are all ready for her to be done.  Between work and 12-15 hours a week of studying, she is like a hermit, diligently tucked inside even on the rare pretty days we've had.   But all that is going to change as of Saturday after her final exam.  We've got a patio to lay, a fence to erect and more retaining walls to build!