If you want rain to stop, install a rain barrel.

I promise that I'm not kidding!  We installed the rain barrel a week ago and have only seen a few drops of rain since.  We were supposed to get rain yesterday and there was lightning and thunder, but it passed south of us.  Frankly, we've been just short of putting our oars to water, so being able to dry everything out is a great thing. 

Onward to the major picture post!  I'm sure that you just can't wait.

Finally.  The back yard is complete.  (The cage bits off to the side are part of Spikes outdoor cage.  He loved being outdoors and being fed fresh greens from the garden.)

My little garden.  I had to replant a row of green beans that didn't come up and yes, I realize that there are some weeds around the onions.  All will be well.  At the top of the garden, you'll see the angel that my brother, Billy, gave to us when Bailey died.  She has been our garden angel ever since.  Right now, she watches over the vegetable garden and nesting chickadees right behind her.

This is the bed that we thought was going to kill us.  Over the last few years, it had become overrun with Obedient plant, which killed off my echinacea, daisies and a variety of other things.  We also had gild over the ground, baby locust trees, some field grass and a couple of dandelions that had made their home in there.  I admitted to Hubs that I looked at that bed and instantly felt overwhelmed.  Between the two of us, and in the 90 + degree heat, we tackled the beast.  We're left here with sedum, a volunteer red oak, columbine and a volunteer Rose of Sharon that made the cut.  I planted ground cherries with tomato cages.  Last year, I found that they flopped and dropped.  I'm thinking that the cages will correct that problem.  I've also planted black whirl hollyhocks, cup flower, New England aster and rough blazing star.  It's a little sparse now, but it'll pick up soon enough.

The other portion of the beastly bed.  We moved a chunk of the coreopsis and the yarrow over to this side of the bed.  The wide open space in front of the butterfly bush may get filled with some annuals.  It may not.  I haven't figured that out yet.

The clematis has finally started to climb!  Geeze!  It has taken a few years. 

The other bed.  Notice Hubs' awesome edging job.  He'd want me to point that out along with his excellent mulch spreading skills. 

The butterfly bush that took a middle hit this past winter.  It looks like it wants to fly, but the middle will catch up soon enough.  Normally, this butterfly bush grows to about 10 feet tall.  Until it fills in, we'll deal with the slight hideousness for now. 

The geranium that I wintered over in the basement.  I've never been successful in wintering anything over, and was pleased that this orphaned geranium that Julia gave me pulled through okay.  I did have it hanging at the front corner of the house, but that proved to be a bit too much for it.  I flipped it with the portulaca basket I made.  Both baskets are much happier.  In case you are wondering, the laundry lines got quite a nice workout this weekend.

K-'s favorite flower is the black and yellow striped petunia.  We call it the bumblebee flower and we thought it was pretty spiffy. 

Finally, we have one of my herb garden beds that are right next to the house.  I do have some bits of extraneous plants in and out of the bed.  The driveway plants are butterfly host plants we've found caterpillars on and the ones in the beds are either volunteer snapdragons or volunteer tomatoes.  I'll see if anyone needs the tomatoes before I give them the pitch.  So far, I have three tomato plants purposely planted.  That's enough for us.  One of my intentionally grown tomatoes was broken by 70 MPH winds, so it was replaced with a volunteer.   So far, I've passed three volunteers on to the neighbors. 

Smiles in my weekend:
-  Nathan's skinless beef hot dogs, Bush's baked beans and grocery macaroni salad.  Hubs doesn't eat "normal" food that often (he generally exists on soy burgers), so the fact that he was able to safely eat these things last week led him to ask me to do a repeat on our Memorial Day picnic items.  Since we were doing the exact same thing on Memorial Day, the easy-peasy menu seemed fitting.
-  Line dried laundry.  Now, if I can just get it put away.
-  Hubs and I being able to work together to get a lot done.
-  Getting mom's birthday cake baked, iced and delivered whole.
-  K- had a really great soccer game today.
-  Field day went well, the weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time!

Have a great day!