I have three outdoor projects I wanted to accomplish this summer, and seeing as it’s now August I figured I’d better get started! Yesterday the kids and I dug up the irises in the back garden. They haven’t been tended in eons and boy were they packed in there tight! Once I had them all out I started splitting them and I can’t believe how many I have! I gave two big bag fulls to my friend this afternoon and there are still tons more!

These are just a few of them!

After seeing the empty garden I’ve decided not to replant the irises there. I think I’ll put some in an empty spot in the front yard, and maybe around the mailbox. Not sure how hard it will be to plant there. I really like the open space of the back garden and I think I’ll put two more sides on it next spring and make it part of our veggie garden. Maybe put pumpkins in it or something. I think the veggies will grow better without the shade from the tall irises as well. For now, it’s a dirt pit and guess who’s loving it?!!

Construction workers in the dirt pit.

I really wanted to put some in front of the house behind the new hostas (wait, I DID accomplish something in the gardens already this summer!) but irises need full sun and as you can see by the below picture, the front garden does not get full sun! Look at those poor hostas reaching, desperately, for sunshine.

Stretch babies stretch, the sun is up there somewhere!