2022 Garden

Welcome to another extremely late end-of-year summary.  Thankfully, 2022 had a different tune than the year before.  "Regular life" around here has been gradually getting back to normal.  We took a couple of little trips here and there, with our BIG return to Alaska in August.  See the travel blog side for more on that.  For the rest of the year I was pretty much focused on either gardening or photography.  Like last year this is a garden-heavy post but it is satisfying to see the evolution of the back yard through the growing season.

Unfortunately, this was also the year of the GROUDHOG INVASION.  A family of them took up residence on the hillside behind the row of houses and they absolutely loved to chomp on my beans and okra.  After sampling Hans' spicy hot peppers they decided to leave those alone...some days the garden looked like a crime scene so that was quite frustrating.  Thankfully, my neighbor and I convinced our HOA to hire trappers but of course they did not catch them all.  We'll be more prepared next year.

 I love a blank slate in the spring.  You can see some early bulbs poking out of the ground.

 

This is the year I learned that I actually like daffodils.  On the left you can see the lovely
heirloom variety Narcissus 'Actaea'

 

 

When it was time to put the garden to bed for fall I bought some
colorful annuals for a small container display.

Alas, the deer did a lot of damage to the hydrangeas out front and the boxwoods got some kind of fatal root rot.  I salvaged the hydrangeas by transplanting them to the back yard and I picked up some alternative "deer resistant" shrubs.  We'll see about that next year...

 

Fall and winter always slips by more quickly than I expect.  Halloween was a slightly quiet affair as Trick-or-Treaters are still a bit tentative.  Hans had family visit for Christmas and that was a very welcome distraction.

 Happy New Year!