{"id":49,"date":"2012-09-23T18:43:05","date_gmt":"2012-09-23T18:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/?p=49"},"modified":"2025-06-18T13:22:26","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T13:22:26","slug":"my-own-back-yard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/my-own-back-yard\/","title":{"rendered":"My Own Back Yard"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s often said, “there’s no place like home”.  Now I wouldn’t go quite that far as there are certainly many parts of the world I enjoy traveling to, but I have to admit, my back yard gives me a lot of pleasure.<\/p>\n

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In our current location, we back up to a wooded area that has a nature trail running through it.  I have mixed feelings about this nature trail as it has had a definite impact on the wildlife (in addition to making the dog bark a lot more).  There are white-tailed deer, foxes and hawks along with the typical raccoon, squirrel, opossum and even twice I’ve seen a coyote.  Sometimes nature trail users are not very respectful about disturbing the wildlife, which is my biggest concern.<\/p>\n

The yard has a huge amount of shade which meant, to my husband, a lot of unattractive ground cover, moss, leaves and dust.  I had a different vision.  HOSTAS!!!!  The first summer we were here, I installed a small sun garden where the previous owner had grown vegetables.  I put in plants that would attract hummingbirds and butterflies.  Just this spring, I doubled the size of that garden.  And then the shade garden started.  First it was just in the back corner.  I used all those dead leaves to make good soil.  Over time, the shade garden has grown deeper and now stretches across the entire width of the back yard, about 180 feet.  What started out as, “I’d like to try a couple of hostas” has now become The Land of the Hostas, with over 160 varieties.<\/p>\n

The back yard\"\"<\/a> habitat gives me time to recharge.  There’s something about getting your hands dirty that I find peaceful.  I love to take plants that I’ve started from quart size and watch them grow and ultimately divide them or give them to friends.  And if they don’t grow in one location, they get moved around the yard to another spot.  The deer seem to enjoy nibbling on whatever trimmings get thrown over the fence.  I have however, seen them standing by the fence and staring at those hostas, a virtual appetizer for them.<\/p>\n

When I’m outside, my camera is never very far away.  The hummingbirds have become used to me sitting in the middle of the garden and taking photos.  The deer are also used to humans.  One day, I saw a mother with triplets (something we’ve had three summers) approaching.  I took my camera and went on the other side of the fence and sat in the leaves.  They continued to approach while I sat very still.  It wasn’t until one of the fawns got close enough to me to sniff my hand, that they realized I was on their side of the fence.  It was a special moment…… one of the many reasons why I enjoy just being in my own back yard.<\/p>\n

Hostas
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It can be a difficult task keeping track of the varieties of hostas I’ve accumulated.  Here’s a start, a work in progress as I identify photographs.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

More Than Hostas<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Other plants, critters and garden art are also in my own back yard.<\/p>\nngg_shortcode_1_placeholder\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s often said, “there’s no place like home”.  Now I wouldn’t go quite that far as there are certainly many parts of the world I enjoy traveling to, but I have to admit, my back yard gives me a lot of pleasure. In our current location, we back up to a wooded area that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travels"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12357,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions\/12357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/laurenajenkinshoffmeyer.com\/laurena\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}