A fun summer Saturday.

A loyal tee ball fan!

The “object” of her affections!

A spin around the track - not as much fun as the bouncy things but still a good time!

A sword for the Clone Trooper / Super Hero / Power Ranger.

And a flower painted on a sleeping princess.

The sixth and final garden on the Garden Walk was a corner home.  This home did not boast a generous back yard so the gardener made the most of the side gardens.  Much of the backyard is hardscape and dog friendly.

I see they have Bishop’s Weed.  I too have it in my yard, in confined places.  People love this plant for it’s coverage and people HATE this plant for the same.  This plants spreads under the ground and spreads like crazy.  It is really hard to get rid of.  Mine seems to be pretty well under control so I have learned to tolerate it.  Nicole was a little more positive in her thoughts and said I should learn to embrace it.

This is the back yard, more hardscape than lushness.

Yep, that’s Nicole in the distance with Eleanor and Francesca.  Eleanor got a lot of attention at the Garden Walk and I cannot begin to tell you how many people made comments about her being the youngest garden walker and that it’s “good to get them gardening early”.  Too cute.  Everybody loves babies, but I’m thinking gardeners - natural nurturers are even more partial to babies!

I liked this leaf sculpture on the side of the house.

Ok, this concludes our Garden Walk Tour.  I hope you enjoyed it.  This was my very first garden walk but I am hooked and will be attending every year from now on.  Who knows, maybe someday my garden will be included in the tour.  Until then, I will continue to mold and shape our space into a garden that is just right for our family.  I got so much inspiration from the walk and look forward to future projects, like the water feature pot.

The 5th garden on the Garden Walk was labeled as a Tuscan Villa and was just a block down from the last garden.  I think, more appropriately, that it was a garden filled with art.  It was a busy space, with a deck and a patio area, and instead of just grass there were stepping stones all over, filled in with grass.

Even the parkway, which in our city is typically all grass, was filled with plants.  

See.  Art.

This I love.  I like when folks have ponds in their yards but for me, with the dog and the kids I can’t see adding one to our yard.  I would venture that they come with at least a fairly higher degree of maintenance  than I have time for.  This small water feature would be just right.  I am officially adding it on the my next summer to do list.  I have maxed out my garden budget for this summer, although this can’t be very expensive.

More art.  I like the round discs on the string hanging from the tree.  It reflected so prettily in person.

The patio area of the yard.

They have little doodads tucked in all areas of the yard.

A pretty pond.

The stepping stone yard.

There was a lot to see in this yard.  I think my very favorite, silly as it may seem, was the small water feature pot.  There were some pretty plants too but the project is what I came away from with here.

Coming up soon in my next post will be the sixth and final garden on the garden walk.  We didn’t get to the real final one, house 7.  I think we may have missed an amazing garden as house 7 had the raffle and auction items.  I think they usually reserve that for the creme de la creme of gardens. Oh well.  It was a fun day for us anyway.

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!

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.

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.

Grass.  Not a familiar term when speaking of my back yard.  At least not until now.  We have grass.  Lots and lots of grass.  This may not be a big deal to you but to me WE HAVE GRASS!!!!  For years two huginormousbig trees dominated the backyard.  That and dirt. Oh and weeds too.  Last summer the trees came down.  We had the yard tilled and added seed.  And more seed.  And more seed.

We are still lacking foundation plantings, which will be coming soon for at least along the back fence.  But for now…we have grass.  The kids have been enjoying the back yard, for the first time they can really run around without the danger of being hurt or being filthy!  The temporary fence we had put up to keep our dog from the back while we were seeding came down.  Moose ran around like a puppy and was rolling in the grass.  So everyone is happy.  See, it’s the little things.

Endless Summer Hydrangea

Not much to look at now but you just wait!

Above, from Left to Right Front - Aglo Rhododendron (Rhododendron Agle”) many Hostas  - 2nd row,- 3Endless Summer The Original Hydrangeas (Hydrangea Macrophylla “Bailmer”) - one on either side and one in the middle, blooming (bought bigger) - climbing clematis - not sure of type as those and Hostas have been here forever.   The Hostas are so big you can barely see the Hydrangea but in a few years that will change.  I thought the Rhododendron had died because shortly after I planted it all the beautiful flowers died.  But look at this next photo - all the green is new growth so I’m sure it’s just fine.  Maybe transplant shock or the bloom time was just over.

Rhododendron

See - looks like it will thrive next year.

Lilac

Common Lilac ((Syringa Vulgaris) planted in the corner next to my neighbors yard.  They have 3 lilac trees on the other side of the fence so this will fill an empty space niceley and make a bigger impact when viewed as a whole.

Viburnum

I thought I had a full size shot of this Raspberry Tart Viburnum (Viburnum dentatum  “Rastzam) but I only have this closeup.  It’s a little bigger than the Rhododendrum right now, it’s supposed to get “showy Raspberry-red fall foliage”.  Should be pretty.    Right now it has these pretty white clusters.

Here are my munchkins enjoying the sunshine and the yard.  I have a lot of work to do still in the back yard - the area with the Hydrangeas needs to be cleaned up and mulched.  I also need to dig out the weeds in  the garden bed along the back fence and in the vegetable patch (not pictured because right now it’s just nasty).  I’ll share some photos of what’s blooming along the back in my next post.  Hope you enjoyed the backyard tour.  Oh and hey, did I mention?  We have GRASS!!