At long (way too long) last, the chickens will make their move from giant dog crates in the garage to the spiffy new “Coop DeVille” barely 30 feet away. The special order siding was delivered and installed, and I’m pretty delighted with the overall effect. It’s different from the house siding, but the stained cedar trim ties it in to the style of the house. From the chickens’ point of view, the best part might be the 6′ fenced yards on either side of the coop, so they can scratch for bugs and leaves without risking their relative safety, since the neighborhood has resident fox, coyote, skunk and exuberant domestic dogs.

There’s a little bit of finish work to do inside today before the pullets bed down for the night. I have to paint their roost ladder and make some progress on the nest boxes. No one has started laying eggs yet, but it could happen any day. In fact, I ordered egg collection baskets yesterday so we’ll be ready.

Above is the big yard. The fenced area on the other side is smaller, but big enough to alternate with this one, or we can open both areas at once. Inside, there are several bars for the hens to roost on at night, two feeders, a five-gallon waterer and a space for six nestboxes.

Trouble gets the honor of being the first to explore her new digs.

Rhoda, Vera and Rosie are among the first to discover the roost bar against the back wall of the coop. Soon all the chickens were playing follow the leader.

The rest of the crew checks out the bedding of pine shavings and straw. They flung it this way and that, nestled into it, and tried their best to scatter it. It didn’t go very far — a new benefit of four solid walls.

I’d been nagging my husband to trim the yews out front. They were overgrown, I said. They engulfed our poor little house, I said.

He said what he usually says: Uh-huh.
(Uh-huh, I’ve discovered, is Husbandspeak for “. . . wonder how the Twins did last night?”)

But suddenly this weekend, he started pruning. And pruning. And pruning. He didn’t stop until he had pruned the upright yews into gigantic lollipops . . . And the the low-growing yew? Well, that was pruned right out of existence. Our house is no longer engulfed. Now it’s buck naked! It looks blank, exposed . . . like my forehead when my mom gave me my bad, back-to-school bang trim.

To my credit, I didn’t gasp when I saw the naked forehead of my house. Nor did I grab the car keys and head straight for Bachmans. Since it’s hot as hades and not the best time in the world to plant, I decided to leave my house exposed for a bit and actually PLAN before I plant.

And that’s where you come in. I’m looking for ideas. This is prime, east-facing real estate with lots of morning sun and sweet afternoon shade. I’ve got some tall grasses (Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’) that I’m going to divide come spring and transplant there. But other than that, it’s a blank slate.

So, gardeners, got some shrub suggestions?

Calling all horticultural voyeurs… and you do know who you are. You like to peek into your neighbor’s yard and see how they’ve landscaped, what they are growing, what ideas you can glean. Good for you! The next two weekends are high time to tour the gardens of others and see what efforts you admire or ideas you can borrow.

One of my favorite garden tours is the Twin Cities Pond and Landscape Tour, which runs this weekend, July 12-13 (northern Twin Cities sites) and next weekend, July 19-20 (southern Twin Cities sites and Rochester) from 10 am-5 pm. In all, there are over 100 gardens to self-tour. Donations benefit the Children’s Cancer Research Fund. Some sites on the tour are especially impressive when lit at night (9-11 on Saturday evenings).

GreenGirls reader Theresa put in a plug for the the first public Hennepin County Master Gardeners’ Garden Tour, Saturday, July 12 from 9 am to 5 p.m. Featured gardens are tended by master gardeners themselves, so this is your chance to see how the experts do it and ask questions. Tickets and more information are available at the website.

If you like hostas (and even Jaime does now), you will want to know about the Bright Gardens for Fraser garden tour. Fraser is a non-profit serving people with special needs and this benefit features eight private gardens, including one fairy garden with miniature plants and an extensive hosta garden. Included in the ticket price is a hosta gardening class, taught by Tom Carlson, owner of HostasDirect.

Additional tours, including some free events, are listed in the garden events calendar.

Has your garden ever been part of a tour? What was it like? Have you gone on a tour and been inspired — either for better or worse? What would your dream garden tour include?

Was it that I remembered to feed them last summer? That I actually watered through the fall? That we had a cool, wet spring? Whatever the reason, my roses bloomed beautifully this year.

I’m not a big rose grower. I just can’t make myself tip hybrid teas, so I’ve only got a few hardy shrub roses — a 10-year-old climber named William Baffin and a couple of the new bush-forms from Baileys oh-so-cutely named Ole and Sven. But, man, they’ve done well this spring.

I was so impressed, I even deadheaded the climber in hopes of promoting a few late season blooms. (Some years, a few flowers make an encore. But I was thinking that since spring was so good, maybe late summer will be, too.)

Anyone else having luck with their roses this year?

Oh, BTW, if you’re growing any of the Knock OUt roses from Conard Pyle, go out and snap some pictures of them in bloom. The company is sponsoring a photo contest and you — yes, you! — could cold, hard cash . . . and some more Knock Out roses. Go to http://www.theknockoutrose.com

If you’re heading out of town for the holiday weekend, be sure to water well before you take off.

Here in the metro, we haven’t had a good soaking rain, for a couple of weeks, so the soil is pretty dry. And it looks like it’s going to be fairly hot and windy this weekend, which can really dry plants out quick-like.

So take the time to water now or or ask one of your neighbors to water for you.

And don’t forget those containers. In addition to watering them and mulching them, you may want move them to a shady spot until you get back in town.

I’ll be here all weekend, so if you need me to water for you, just gimme a holler!