Giant Willow

I'm so excited to come inside and tell you some big plans we have for the house, but I feel like I can't leave the yard yet until I document a few more details there. It has been pretty uninspiring, but bear with me. So in on our back rock garden, things have progressed beautifully  this year. All the things planted there appear to be happy and growing. After the landscaping crew installed all of the things in the linked post, we made a few changes, adding some cardinal flowers and, most notably, planting a fast-growing willow hybrid in place of one of the red chokeberries, to provide some privacy from the parking lot in the back:

They were not kidding when they said it was fast growing...here is a picture of it in March 2022, right when we planted it:

Here it is again in June 2022, three months later:

Fast forward to August of this year, and it has long surpassed the shed height and is giving the trees a run for their money:

I feel like if we watch this tree for a few hours, we would *see* it growing...

I mentioned the cardinal flowers, so I can't get away without showing a picture of them--here they are with the rest of corner, looking all pink and pretty:

And a close-up, because they are so lovely. More important, the pollinating bugs love to hang out on them:

A short distance from the rain garden, next to the shed, another garden is blooming. First--a blast from the past, when D. put pavers around the edge of the shed to give it a bit more protection from splashing mud and just to make it look nice (you can see this picture is from before we had the rock garden):

Then this spring, after we'd taken down the vegetable garden and returned it to grass, oldest kid asked "can I have a garden?" So we made her a little one, cautioning her not to bother with veggies because, as we'd all learned, lots of animals will eat them unless they're well protected. So she opted for flowers. D dug up a portion of the grass next to the shed ramp, put in some brick edging, and added some soil. The rest was all child labor. Lots of annuals and a few perennials planted, and even regular watering:

It started filling in and looking great:

Here it is in early fall, with some very happy zinnias and a new iron border as well to help frame it. We definitely plan to pair it with another small plot on the other side next spring:

We still have a quick fall plant recap to go and then we move indoors for a while!