The Yard is Blossoming!!

Today I discovered that this plant in our yard has beautiful purple flowers all over it! Not sure what type of plant is it, but it was sure a pleasant surprise!

Our pear tree is also starting to get some blossoms on it. We did a lot of pruning, so it's nice to see that we didn't kill it :)

It's hard to see the blossoms at this distance.

Crazy that these turn into yummy, juicy pears.

We also have some green leaves sprouting from our Brown Turkey Fig Tree. I'm excited to try these!

This is the only fruit tree that we planted that has any sign of life/growth.

Our Box Elder trees are covered with small green leaves now. Some of the pink blossoms are still showing, but the green is starting to take over. Today I even saw a few small leaves growing on the large Sycamore we have in our front yard.

I love GREEN!

This is seriously a pretty tree.

These pots have Ranunculus bulbs in them. I lost the bag in our garage and planted them way after I should have. Some of the pots didn't have drainage holes in the bottom and nothing is growing in those pots, however, the few that have drainage holes have sprouts.

See the little pot... it didn't have a hole in the bottom :(

I have created a plan for the garden and hope that it works out the way I want it to. I'm concerned about the areas where I plan to plant directly in the ground. My goal is to get everything in the garden beds and 1/2 wine barrels planted first and then I'll attempt the in-ground edible portion of the garden. 

The plan for the back right garden area of our yard.

I'm really excited to get the edible part of the garden going. I think I'll start one garden bed with  vegetables and one garden bed with flowers over my spring break, but wait for the others until then end of the month or even early May when it's more likely there won't be frost.

Seedling TAKEOVER!

parsley 

marigold

And for more front of the house updates... I love seeing which flower will make an appearance each day! It's cute because Patrick always points out his new favorite too.

The flower bed to the left of the front door.

A beautiful red Tulip opens ready for pollinators.

Daffodil bliss.... quite a few of the Tulips are hiding (they're a few inches shorter than most of the Daffodils).

It's so green and pretty :)

Can you see the chrysalis? I spotted this thing on the Sycamore back in November and it's still hanging on for dear life.

And of course... it is not all rainbows and sunshine here in Cotati. We have a major gopher problem. Check out the size of this gopher mound! Seriously, they're all over the place and the diameter of the hole is about 3-5 inches (that's a HUGE gopher!!!). My uncle mentioned that we should get an owl box. That way owls will move into our yard and hunt these critters. The boxes are back ordered right now, but I am looking forward to getting one in our yard ASAP!

This wasn't there yesterday!

Look at the mounds in comparison to the Shout bottle. They're honestly 6-8 inches high (at least)!