Away in a garden....

Sorry I have been away from blog land so long. I have been playing in the dirt for the last two weeks. When I come in at night I am so tired I crash. I am just like a little kid honestly. Love the dirt. I have gotten a vegetable garden planted, lettuce, arrugla, rosemary, fennel, radishes, onions, oregano and strawberries. I have tomatoes and peppers waiting for the cold weather to settle. I have been planting trees. I bought the October Glory and then fell in love with another tree I had no room for. An expensive redbud called a Lavender Twist. I have been rearranging perennials, and roses. Good time to move things around in this cool weather. The first year I had moved so many things from my previous garden I just plunked stuff in the ground to get started. I am desperately trying to decide on five more rose bushes, hence been on the garden forums. I am so excited about planting four Riesling grape plants. I have a friend, who is a wine maker, and he will be giving us lessons on wine making. Dan has decided he wants to take this on. What a fun adventure. This area is so fabulous for growing grapes. I also planted a Seedless Concord, just for the heavenly smell in the fall mmmmmmmmm and a red seedless grape Red Flame for eating. We also need to get a fence in and a shed. There is a lot of activity going on in the back yard, both human and wild life. I am trying to get a picture of a young male pheasant who shows up once a day, but I can’t seem to get a close up. His plumage and coloring are so amazing this time of the year. I want to use the colors in a painting for my great room.

This is the closest I have been able to get with my zoom. There are actually three males strutting around crowing every evening. It has been great fun to watch. Or rather to hear, they are quite shy about exposing themselves, but they crow so we know they are there.

If you look very closely you can see a stake or two where I plan on planting the roses. I have iris about to bloom too. And under the bench is where the pheasant popped up when I took his picture.