Garden tour --flowers and living spaces

 Wanna' see my flowers?  One of the reason I want bees is I see hundreds of SOMEONE ELSE'S bees all over my yard all summer.  Why shouldn't I get some of the honey?  These first couple of pictures are of my "park strip": the area between the sidewalk and the road.  Grass never does super well here with our hot, dry Utah summers, so I planted some stuff that could withstand drought a little better. 

 This is the front of the house.  I love the contrasting foliage colors.

 Here's my little retreat in the backyard.  This is where I can put pink flowers without anyone knowing.  It's on the mid to lower level of the back so it feels really private with rock walls and fence all around it.

Hollyhocks against the back fence.

Oriental lilies.

perennial sweet peas

 On the very lowest level, there is a little tiny patio opening out of the basement rooms (our home gym).  It gets pretty hot here, so I put in a little fountain to help you "think cool", and some little succulents that won't dry out and die in an afternoon.

Aren't they cute?

Coming back up the stairs, we run into a big old section of tansy (tanacetum), mums, daylilies, and yarrow.

(this is the tansy up close)

                                                                                                

Finally we get to the main patio off of the kitchen.  I finally got the patio set I wanted this summer.  It's aluminum so it's lightweight (but looks beautifully heavy), and has no glass or tile to crack and break.  We can at last eat together on the patio as a family.  My in-laws loved it too while they were here since the table can easily accommodate 8-10 people.  The shades pull down to the west and south to block sun, but the pergola on top only provides filtered shade.  I think I'm going to bribe Jeff to move it around to cover the top instead of the south.  Hmmm.  I need to run through my list of husband incentives...

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