Front Yard: 8 Months Later

Eight months ago we landscaped our front yard with shrubs, flowers, and bulbs. I am glad most of them survived the heat last year as our place tends to get hotter in the summer. These are some of the pictures that we took this morning.

Front Yard: Before and After

Our front yard in the neighborhood was not the greatest sight and I am sure it wouldn't be selected for any gardening magazine. For the past few months I spend  most of my weekends planning and visiting nurseries for ideas on landscaping our front yard. I've always wanted a garden filled with an array of annuals perennials, shrubs, to attract birds, bees, and butterflies. We look at several landscaping magazines for ideas on different types of designs and plans. We've decided to that our front yard will have a row of jasmine that  will give us some privacy; a layer of brick pavers along the border and a path of flagstones with buffalo grass.

The ground was solid hard and was covered with ghastly weeds and almost dead-looking grass. It looks pretty sad and neglected. John spent two weekends spraying roundup on the entire lawn. The ground was then rototilled and amended with fresh dirt and compost. The best part of it was getting down on my knees and hands to dig and plant all the freshly purchased plants and shrubs and grass seedlings. I have three different varieties of hydrangeas, tree peonies, lavender, rubeckia, wigelia, penstemon, salvia, chrysanthemum, coneflowers, daisies and a border of alternating rows of hostas with variegated leaves,white bacopa and purple nierembergias. I can't wait for the grass seedlings to germinate and all my darlings to grow and be blooming happy in their surroundings.

Fungi Cultivating

Earlier this year, I was introduced to Wine Caps cultivating by Kwan who had some classes in mycology at college. The scientific name is Stopharia rugosa-annulata. Quite a mouthful, imagine if asked what's for dinner--it's grilled tomato-infused Stopharia rugosa-annulata! The mushroom features a robust white stalk with a port wine colored cap. They are crisp, slightly nut flavored mushrooms that are great for cooking and grilling. I was hesitant at first as I've heard horrifying stories about eating the wrong mushrooms. He told me that Wine Caps is one of the easiest to grow and it requires a small area,
I thought I'll give it a try! I bought some spawn pegs, bale of straw and some wood chips. I prepared the ground with dirt and mulched with wood chips, and soaked the straws with water in large buckets.

I also planted two blueberries bushes beside the patch. I kept the area moist and hope they will grow. I was disheartened when Kwan showed me his Wine Caps--while mine was covered with stray mushrooms--sigh! Last evening, I was caught by surprise when I visited the patch. There in middle was---two beautiful wine caps sprouted from the ground. I was ecstatic! I jumped for joy...:)