Freshening Up the Place

We completed construction on our renovation about 5 years ago.  This spring, John finished the deck (more on that later).  Last fall, we realized the foundation plantings in front of the house were looking...tired.  To say the least.  So we (actually, John) pulled them all out, and he built a raised bed in front of the picture window.  After a few weeks, we still hadn't planted anything so he covered it with a tarp for the rest of the fall.  And winter.

And there it sat until about a month ago, when I realized I was going to miss the spring planting season as well.  Time to just bite the bullet, even though I had little to no idea what I wanted to put in there.  A friend of mine bought a nursery last year, so I went up and said, "help!".

Never underestimate the power of being clueless.  It took us a couple of hours of laying things out at the nursery, but we came up with a plan.  A low maintenance, deer-resistant mix of flowering and evergreen shrubs and the long shot - a dwarf crape myrtle. 

When we pulled off the tarp, there was a toad.  JC was standing about a foot from it when Rachel spotted it.  JC kept saying, "where?" because it blended so well with the dirt.

Here's our toad - isn't he lovely?  I felt bad disturbing him.

We have a butterfly bush, a dwarf blue spruce, a low-growing evergreen called "Blue Pacific" and at the end is the Crape Myrtle.  There's another blue spruce and blue pacific to the left, making for nice symmetry.  Except for the Crape Myrtle.

Unfortunately, something has been eating the Crape Myrtle.  It's looking a little better but I'm thinking of getting some hardware cloth and making an enclosure around it.  It could be deer, rabbits, or even the chipmuncks, I guess.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!