The third garden of the Garden Walk was a lovely garden filled with plants and even a hidden garden behind the garage.  This garden was accompanied by the self proclaimed “Prettiest alley in Park Ridge”.  The back yard had no grass at all but was instead filled with plants.  

This striking white Hosta was beautiful next to all the greenery.

In the short car ride from house 2 to house 3 Ross had fallen asleep.  Awakened and now taken to another home, he promptly just curled up on the sidewalk in front of the house and stated he was tired.  Francesca, one to go with the flow, curled up right next to him.  He rested in the yard while we toured the garden and then we dropped him off ot be at home with dad.  Strangely enough, this is not the first photo of them I have like this.  I have one from Christmas when they had finished lying under the tree looking at the lights.

Entry into the secret garden.

Seating area in the secret garden.

Alley behind the home.  It was nice to see that all the neighbors down the block had planted along the fence line by their garages.  It really was pretty - for an alley!

The prettiest “flower” in the garden!

All in all a lovely garden.  Not my style, I prefer grass in the yard but I can appreciate the beauty of a yard like this.  After this garden it was off to home to drop Ross off, refuel the remaining baby and toddler and return to the second leg of our Garden Walk.  More to come.

The second home on the Garden Walk tour was entitled “Survival of the Fittest”.  The home itself, a lovely Tudor, had a sordid pastalleged to be the hangout of Roger “The Terrible” of the Touhy gang, Touhy apparently being a Prohibition-era bootlegger according to the owners.  I guess I never even thought of the origins of some of the street names before, especially Touhy.  This was a lovely garden setting, one which the owner states is still evolving. 

The Rose garden.

This was the only home that labeled the plants, this was a wonderful idea for us novice gardeners.

A really pretty granite fountain.  Very tempting to the kids and I am very glad I stopped Francesca before she took a sip.  A few minutes later we saw the homeowner pouring bleach in it.  Can’t be good for the birds.

This was a very large puddle on the way back to the car.  See the yellow thing in it?  Wait, let me get closer.

A bit blurry as I was trying to stop Francesca from running into the water to get it.  It’s a little yellow rubber ducky.  Too cute.

At this point, Ross had tuckered out from the two gardens we toured.  We promised him one more and then we’d drop him off at home, as dad would be home by then.  This seemed to placate him.  For now. 

When we get to house three, things take a turn.  I’ll be posting house three on the tour shortly.

Today was the much anticipated Garden Walk in our city.  Nicole and baby Eleanor joined myself, Ross (who insisted he wanted to come) and Francesca on the walk.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and there were some lovely gardens to tour.  Of the seven gardens on the tour, we got to six of them.  Not bad when toting around a pre-schooler, toddler and newborn!  Here are some of the highlights.  Giant Hostas, Astilbes and various Oak Leaf Hydrangeas were a common sight throughout the day. 

The first garden we visited was called a “Friendship Garden”, because many of the plants were received from friends as gifts and divisions.  One of the highlights was a train in the garden.  One of the owners was a dentist and she had repurposed a tooth shaped toy box as a planter.  Her husband joked that she asked him to drill some holes in the bottom and he replied “Good, I get to do a root canal!”.  The kids enjoyed this garden the most as they had snacks - Oreo cookies in particular and a play area in the yard for the kids in the family, not to mention the train .  I’m sure Ross was thinking I was crazy for trying to talk him into going to Nonna’s house instead and telling him there wouldn’t be anything fun for him.

The houses along the path are actually bird houses.

The play area, with a little seating area for children at the very forefront of the photo. 

A very cute garden.  The homeowner commented that she is a haphazard gardener.  It was cute in that it wasn’t a serious garden.  It had many elements of fun and whimsy.  I will share the rest of the walk with you shortly.  There are so many photos of each garden that I need to spread them out into separate posts.  Stay tuned!

Dianthus

I promised more photos from the garden, so here goes.  The Dianthus is a new addition to the garden.

The Endless Summer Hydrangeas are blooming beautifully.  The Salvia annuals clash pretty strongly next to the Hydrangeas.  I had the annuals left over after planting up my pots and didn’t want them to go to waste.  Even with them clashing, having had no color in the yard for so long - I still think it looks nice. 

Pretty, simple Marigolds in the Florida room.

More Florida room fun.

This Pieris Japonica “Valley Rose” or Valley Rose Pieris is along the side of the house by the fence.  It will eventually get 3-4 ft high and 5 feet wide - a good screen for the garbage cans kept behind the fence.  It is an evergreen that blooms in the spring with pretty pink, bell-shaped flowers. 

The side garden is mostly Hostas, with this Astilbe which is growing nicely.  This is the third summer for this Astilbe, it had another planted right next to it which was not as healthy looking.  Last year I moved it to the other side of the house where is is thriving.  Go figure.

And this is what happens when I don’t write down - RIGHT AWAY - in my garden book or file what the name of the plant is.  I think this is Angels Halo or something like that - I can’t find the tag - it was purchased at the Garden Club sale, as was the little wrought iron tri-fold ($1 SCORE!).  I have to find the Popsicle stick with the name written on it.  It will have little yellow flowers on it.

My neighbor’s Phlox has crept over to my side of the garden.  I do not mind at all, it is very pretty and I hope it spreads some more. 

Some pretty annuals in containers up front.

And would you believe I just divided and thinned out the day lilies by the front coach light last year?

It looks too crowded.  I think I need to thin it out again later this year.  If the rain ever lets up I can get back out to the yard and continue to tweak.  I know the rain is good for the plants and that since we have some new additions to the yard the rain is great for helping to establish good roots, but come on.  Oh, and with the new grass in the back yard I am mowing twice a week some weeks.  I’m not complaining, the fact that we have grass in the back yard is great.  I’d love to be playing on it more though.  Looks like we may have some better weather coming.  Come on summer, we are waiting!

Waiting for dance class to begin.

Sorry about the red eye!

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So many of my photos of Francesca are fuzzy.  She moves all the time and never stops!  This session of Dance is over for now but she loved it, so we will definitely sign up again.  She loves to wear her dance outfit and routinely wears it around.

It’s a drizzly day today but I noticed that finally my Peonies started to bloom.  This is the first year I have seen so many buds on my plant but all of neighbors have had flowers for days.  I was afraid my buds would never open (not sure if that is even a founded fear but none the less it was real to me).  I have my first Peony this year.  I don’t know the type, it was here when we bought our home but it has such pretty shades of pink.

My neighbor to the South has all different colors of Peony plants along the fence line - so pretty.

This bloom inspired me to take some photos of the garden.  Not the best day for photos as it is overcast but the pictures are okay.  This is our vegetable garden - it was planted a couple of weeks ago and it doesn’t really look like it’s changed much - our weather has been so cool, hopefully it will warm up soon.  We are ready for summer.

We have Sweet Cherry tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, Heirloom tomatoes ”Rainbow Mix Cherry”, Roma tomatoes, Rutger tomatoes, Big Boy tomatoes (we really like tomatoes) as well as basil, Jalapeno peppers, Melrose peppers and California Wonder peppers.  We also have an overflow of tomatoes and basil along the North fence, not sure how well they will do there.

In the containers we have oregano, chives, garlic chives, cilantro, rosemary, and parsley.  Off to the side we have a bean (not sure what it is but it was white) that  Ross planted in school).  I wanted to plant zucchini and some lettuces but ran out of room and time.  I am hoping to expand the garden next year.  We had planted peas in the spring but nothing came up (they were old seeds).

This is a giant Hosta that my friend Anita gave me a division of from her garden.  I hope it grows as large as hers, it’s just beautiful.  The orange ribbon along the fence and here and there in the garden mark where I planted last fall.  In this photo the orange is the Annabelle Hydrangea that I planted last October.  It was so tiny when it arrived - I can not imagine how long it will take to be of any size and substance.  I planted four of them along the back of the yard.  

This planter thingy was a must get rid of over the last few years.  I tried, but I couldn’t budge it.  It is set in concrete and is really set in the ground.  Last year I spray painted it and decided to try to live with it for now.  I am leaning towards glad that I did.  The Bishops Weed grows high on the bottom and I planted annuals in the top planters that will hopefully grow down.  The Potato vine in the middle should do so as well.   My vision was to have plants trailing down from the pots and then have plants on the bottom that were very tall so that the planter can’t really be seen.  Not sure if I have chosen the right plants for this but the beauty is that they are annuals so I can change them out.  I may grow some tall perennials at the bottom, it’s hard to say if they’ll come in as the Bishops Weed is so full and when it shoots up the flowers it gets a little tall.  I’d have to put something in that was already a decent size to survive, I think.

It gives some height to an area along the back of the yard that is in need of foundation plantings.  Right now there is an awful lot of green along the back of the yard. but soon the Peonies will be more visible and the Allium is starting to get buds.

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 There are seven little Allium buds peeking through all the greenery.

This little lovely was a pass along plant from my cousin Carols garden.  It is her “What is it?” plant, as she does not know what it is.    I have so much of the garden to share, but I’ll post it later this week.  I want to show you the side garden and the garden along the back of the house, as well as some of the container plantings.  For now, I’ll leave you with a closer view of the plants on top of the planter in the back. 

Potato Vine

Other assorted annuals (I have misplaced my tags - I need to find them to identify what they are).  I believe the middle ones are cone flowers and the ones to the side trail but I can’t recall their name.  I’ll find the tags soon and post their names.

Ciao for now, I’ll post more garden soon!

Their first practice and uniform day.

Up at bat.

We’ll try this one again.

Way to break the uniform in after the game.

King of the hill!

Pre-K is officially over, with a lovely little patriotic program and a certificate ceremony to boot!  Afterwards, a picnic in the park organized by the Pre-K moms.  It was a beautiful day and hours were spent in the park, kids playing and moms talking.  I was so busy enjoying I didn’t even get any pictures.  Here are some from the program to enjoy!

Ross is thrilled - he gets to keep the hat!

Looking very proud, certificate in hand.  Next stop Kindergarten!

I actually teared up during the program.  I can cry at a Hallmark commercial.  I can’t believe Ross is off to this next phase in his life.  My little guy is growing up.