So beautiful and serene....just love it! It relaxes me just looking :0)

Spring has arrived here too! Things are taking off. I've got a big project going on myself. Cleaning/shaping up all bed edges and putting down border finally!. I've found I sure don't have the strength like used to, so it's been a big job!

Very windy here today as a storm is brewing for the cooler temps to come. Been unusually warm...near 90 the past few days, The cooler temps will be much welcomed.....

It looks like your grass is doing well?

Thanks, GardenHo. The backyard is our favorite part of the garden. Green and serene was the objective and, after the rain we've had in April and early May, green is in abundance out there! The grass looks well in the pictures - but not up close! Too much dog-applied high-nitrogen fertilizer :-) With very little snow this winter, there wasn't much protection available for the grass. Once it's warm and the garden hose is out, we can flood the pee spots, but that's not possible in the winter and early spring. We put down grass seed a couple of weeks ago - and promptly got a heavy rain that washed most of it off (and birds feasted on a lot of it too!) These are the main culprits of the lawn damage:

It's windy with a thunderstorm watch here too. It looks like we might get some rain soon.

You said you're 'putting down border' - what are you using? One of the best things I did here was put the path around the lawn, which minimizes work involved in keeping grass out of beds. The shady conditions in the backyard helps a lot too as the grass is always quite weak so is easy to rip out if necessary. Every now and then I'll use stakes and string to re-establish the lines of the lawn - cutting along the string with an edging tool just takes a few minutes and the grass pulls out easily. If we stay here much longer - and we intend to! - I am strongly considering removing the grass paths in the front garden - which would eliminate the need for the metal grass barrier along the brick edging (the metal edging heaves with the frost and drives me crazy!). DH rolls his eyes at the idea :-) I'd hire someone to do the work at this point and I'm in the reduce-work stage here too.

Green and serene...you nailed it! and I'm green with envy having full sun on an acre, with the exception of two maples.

The only time I've had a problem with 'too much nitrogen' was when I had a female. With just my boys (following in line :) it's never been an issue.

The border I chose is rubber and should last a long long time. It was pricey but well worth it as I can no longer keep up with so many beds. Hiring someone to do the work would have been wonderful, but unfortunately not an option as I have a bath update in the works.

Having the border is now a constant reminder to stop buying...and that I WILL NO LONGER expand the beds! I'm done...with the exception of shuffling things around occasionally :0)

Here is a spring bed, the first bed I made (before the border), it runs along one side of my driveway...many more followed.

GardenHo - there was a time when I wanted a larger garden - an acre would have been nice :-) But in the last year or so, our little 1/4 acre sometimes seems a bit too much.... I put in brick edging 10 years ago to eliminate the work involved in refreshing the trench edging each year and to eliminate the fall hazard that the trench created. I would not want to contemplate doing the edging now! And, while the edging solved one set of problems, the frost heaving of the grass barrier material has created a new annoyance! While it would gall me to pay someone to do the work, it shouldn't be an outrageous cost as it's not too big an area in the front where it would need doing... At this point in my life, I'd rather be Management than Labour for a project like that. :-) But it's not likely to be done for a year or two - if it ever gets done at all....

Whar kind of beasts are 'your boys'? The Collie mix is a female but the other two are males.

That's a nice-sized border. I remember other pictures you've posted of it.

Lol they are Cockapoos, such good natured!

Cockapoo - cuties indeed! A neighbour behind us has one - a very old gentleman now :-)

The white redbuds are mostly in bloom this morning. Some pictures from morning walkabout....

Redbud near the pines, with brunnera at the base and Black Jetbead shrub blooming diagonally across the path to the left: (you can see how patchy the lawn is when seen in the closer view!)

Other white redbud diagonally across the lawn:

Dogwood by the shed viewed from across the trillium patch:

That looks fantastic! We had a somewhat mild winter but the lack of snowcover didn't help - I noticed quite a few losses in my perennial border. My hostas have been very slow too, they are just pipping up now. I am pacing myself with the weeding...it's not even actual weeds...it's quack and lawn grass that's most prevalent in the flowerbeds. I am really enjoying my new hori hori knife though...it makes weeding a lot easier.

Beautiful property, woody!

Woodyoak, wow, what a great trilium patch!

Thanks princeton. My ambition is to have trilliums spread around the backyard beds to produce a look much like that in the nearby small woodland in the picture below. There were a few trilliums in various spots when we bought this place 18 years ago. I have tried to give them conditions as close as possible to what they receive in the nearby woods. Most are still only individuals or small clumps, but that one bed has really gone nuts, with lots of offsets and seedlings that are now starting to bloom. There's a trunk of a dead apple tree that I left on the ground there. I think that has helped a lot in that area. The trilliums are just finishing blooming now. They fade to pink as the blooms finish.

WOW- I've never seen such an impressive clump. You would die laughing at my single 2 yo plant that I'm waiting will some day make more. If you are ever interested in a plant exchange/sase/purchase, lmk! My trilium could use some company :)

Have you ever collected trillium seeds & had them grow up successfully?

Or do you mean the naturally sown seedlings?

Naturally grown seedlings - I didn't have anything to do with it! Apparently ants spread the seeds - which may be why the bed with the rotting apple tree trunk is the one that is doing so well. Last year I added a small cedar trunk to the bed across the path that has a couple of red trilliums that have seeded a bit but not much. Hopefully that will help those ones. I have occasionally seen seed pods, but have never collected them or tried to grow the seeds in pots. I figure they do best under natural conditions so have left them to do whatever they want! I leave all fallen leaves and dead plant foliage in place and rake in additional oak leaves in spring. There is no other mulch in the bed. They don't get any supplemental water and I try to avoid digging in the bed when they are dormant. The area is reasonably moist in spring but dries out in summer. They are under deciduous trees and shrubs so get sun in spring but shade in summer. A neighbour's spruce tree blocks sun from the south.

When the first seedlings started to appear, I didn't know what they were at first! They only have a single seed leaf, which I didn't know at the time. My first thought was OMG - a new weed! I was about to yank them out when I noticed a couple had three leaves showing... :-)

Have patience, give them the right conditions, and they will spread. It's very satisfying to watch them 'do their stuff' and know that you've made them happy!