Tuesday Garden Party #3

Lots and lots of new stuff in our garden and yard this week!  Sod, flowers, dirt, sand, vegetables and herbs! 

 This picture makes me just a little sad.  You see, our backyard playset used to sit here, but as it was in pretty bad shape and my kids had mostly outgrowning it, we took it down last fall.  In it's place was a big bare dirt spot.  Hubby and the kids spent most of Monday afternoon and evening laying sod and filling it in with river sand.  It looks so much better!

 An up-close look at some of their hard work.  If you have never laid sod, let me tell you ,it is hard, dirty work and I appreciate all their efforts.

 I just had to show off my lavendar rhododendron. It is full of blooms, with more buds growing.  It looked better, but we had a rain shower right before I took this picture.

This lovely little lady will be finding a permanent home in my peony bed is a couple of days.  I got her for a STEAL at Home Depot this weekend as she was just about bloomed out and no one wanted her.  Don't they know she will be even more beautiful next year?  I'm thrilled add her to my peony garden as all my others are double blooms, so this single bloom will be a interesting addition.

And here is my next project -- peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and melons all waiting to be planted.  I planted some last week, but lost my 2 cucumbers to a late frost.  I thought I'd  lost 2 tomato plants too, but they seem to be recovering quite well.  I also have bean seed to plant along the back of each bed.  I'm going to try to get them to grow on the trellis, we will see just how trainable beans are. 

I ran out of dirt a couple of weeks ago, so this bed needs to be amended and then my basil will go in.  I'm planting 3 plants now and will add another 3 in a couple of weeks.  I only planted 3 last year and we ran out of pesto in December.  I'm hoping this will be enough for several pints to freeze. 

Thanks for joining my lawn and garden tour.  I'm linking up to An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party.