Weekend Warriors

It's that time of year again.

DIY Time!

This year's project was a BIG ONE!

We wanted to spruce up the front of our house.

As you can see, the hedges were taking over everything. We also had way too much flowerbed for us to maintain. It was always overgrown with weeds. What flowers I did have were always hard to see because of all the weeds. Oh AND I could never plant anything on the end of the walkway where it meets the driveway. Everything died in that corner because it was so much lower than the rest. In the first picture, you can sort of tell where the pansies come to a halt near the end of the bushes.

See what I mean:

Not only were the weeds a problem, but we also had trouble figuring out the willy nilly placement of the plants from previous owners. There were daffodils in one area and nowhere else. Several daylillies spaced here and there... and one holly bush that never got any larger as long as we have lived here. We also had an azalea that only produced one bloom per year. No lie. One.

To the left of the porch, there wasn't technically a flower bed, but a few bulbs had been planted in front of the bushes, behind them (really?) and in between them. Those were all but lost in the grass and never had a chance to shine.

You might can see in this next picture how the bushes were pushing over some of the daylillies and how the pansies were just drowned out by all the chaos.

It just looked like a big ole mess having plants in between the bushes (and behind them) and then the occasional daylilly right up front. There were also about 4 amaryllis in odd places (like the one in this picture behind the  purple pansy and RightNextTo the random daylilly in the front)

It got to be such an eyesore that even family portraits were being ruined by the weeds.

See the corner of the flower bed?

Here, let me show you:

We needed a plan.

and a truck.

We decided to make 2 flower beds - one on each side - and then we would fill in the rest with sod.

First, we pulled out the ginormous bushes.

It was pretty entertaining for the innocent bystanders, I'm sure.

I hacked away with an electric trimmer, Wesley carried off the branches and Brad dug up the roots. As you may recall, this drew strange comments from our neighbors.

This was sort of like the tag-team way we removed the big tree from the end of the porch 2 years ago...

After that, Brad tilled the soil and we dug up every single daffodil and daylilly. I was nervous that I would lose the beautiful pink ones and yellow ones but there was just no way to tell where they were since nothing was blooming. I was sad to lose all my pansies since they were still blooming. Brad assured me it was ok to throw them away, though.

After we laid out the shape and put in some edging, I decided on a layout and transplanted the daylillies, daffodils, amaryllises and even some irises. I left room for some new bulbs to plant in the fall. Want to see the bulbs I ordered? Of course you do ;)

First up - The Biltmore Endless Spring PURPLE Tulip Mix :) 20 bulbs of various tulips that will bloom all throughout the Spring.

Angelique Tulips, which bloom in the late spring and look like my very favorite flower, peonies!

And, last but not least, these super cool PINK daffodils because... I needed another reason for Kim to come visit ;)

Anwyays, back to the project.

It was time to sod the now non-garden area.

There is a guy in our church who sells sod so that aspect was taken care of, but we needed a way to bring it home. My boss graciously loaned us his pick up truck. Thank goodnes, too, because we filled it to capacity!

We had a good system going. The man who sells the sod would chop it into squares, one of us would scoop it up and the other two would carry it to the truck. Wesley preferred to scoop it up, but he also was handy to have in the bed of the truck. Then, we could bring it to him and he would stack it up. After that, we headed home with all that green, grassy goodness.

Wes was so over the garden by that point so Brad and I laid all the sod without our little helper.
 

Instantly, it made a huge difference!!

I also moved a small azalea bush from the side of the porch to this alcove so my hydrangea wouldn't be so lonely.

After that, all we had to do was put in some petunias to replace the pansies and then throw down some mulch.

We went with high-contrast black mulch and it looks awesome!!

Well, see for yourself.

Overall, the project was a lot... ALOT of work, but the results were so worth it!

Just a reminder of what it was like before followed by the finished project:

Oh, and when we stocked up on petunias, guess what I spotted in the garden center...

A peony bush!!

I've never been able to grow one from the root / risome so I have high hopes for the bush.

The first two blooms were GORGEOUS!!!

 

And if you were worried about the poor pansies that were still blooming, never fear.

I kept them :)

Easter 2011

Last weekend, we got the chance to go to my parents' house for most of Easter weekend. It was wonderful because I got to spend time with everyone AND I got to shop :)  (hey, I needed an Easter dress and new shoes, right?)

While there, Wes and Connor enjoyed lots of time together without a single argument!

Let's see, they dyed eggs, of course...

My parents cooked an awesome spread of shish ka bobs...

There were mushrooms...
and shrimp...
and onions...
and chicken...
and venison...
and corn...
and.... hmmm I think that's about it... 

Connor got us all hooked on Battleship

After a fun-filled and delicious Thursday -Saturday, we headed back home.

Sunday arrived and Wesley followed the Easter Bunny's clues to find his basket.

I must say, the Life card game has been a huge hit. I think we played every night this week :)

After the basket was thoroughly scoped out, it was time to get ready for church. Sadly, the scavenger hunt ran a little long and we were too rushed to take a picture before church (aka while my hair was still cute) but the after church pictures turned out nicely.

After I got the picture *I* wanted, Wes had a few ideas of his own... 

Trying Something New

I'm pretty excited :) I have started something that I have wanted to try for YEARS!

It may sound incredibly simple, but I've always wanted to grow my own herbs. I blame my mom for this (and if she reads this, I'm sure she's proud)

So, Mom Smith helped me pick out some pots... which was possibly the trickiest part! And she donated some seeds to the cause :)

I am now anxiously awaiting:

Sweet Basil, Cilantro / Coriander and two kinds of Parsley

How do you like my DIY labels?


Another Mom Smith addition is phlox. I spotted her pots of phlox and thought they were fun so she took me to see if I saw any varieties I might like....


At first, I admit, I was not sure I really needed any more flowers.... But then I discovered that these are perennials!! I like the idea that I won't have to replant these next year (sorry, pansies) So we got three batches of these sweet purple flowers:

In addition to the new flowers, I am really happy to see some returning from last year...


Let me rephrase that... I was "happy" to see the tulips again this spring because they were so beautiful last year.


But I can admit that bulbs are fairly reliable. My growing number of daffodils doesn't impress me...


What does impress me (and Wes) is that my ranunculus are back!! In fact, the one plant that bloomed last year is back and LARGER :) If you'll recall... It looked like THIS  last year.

What's really cool is that I think I have figured out what conditions are needed to grow these flowers. I had one successful plant last year. Figuring out why that one worked, I planted 6 more in the fall.... So the 2 year old plant has about 6 or 7 buds / blooms... and the 1st year plants are all humming along with 1 or 2 buds (like the one last year)

SO - Just IMAGINE how beautiful all of the plants will be NEXT spring! I can't wait!!

And, there is one last new thing I've discovered.

Thanks to Wesley I have happily added a few orange accents in the flower bed... Such as the ranunculus.. and "his" pansies and snapdragons...

And you know what I've discovered?

Orange looks surprisingly good with purple :)

Wouldn't you agree?

Spring is Here!

I am so thankful that Spring is making its annual debut! I have had enough Winter and cold / dreary weather!

And, with Spring comes a variety of flowers.

Our beautiful trees in the front yard are in full bloom making me and the birds very happy :)

All the pansies I planted in the cold months are blooming wonderfully with the sunshine beaming down on them!

The yellow and orange ones are Wesley's so we periodically go check on them so he can see that "his" pansies are doing well. I can't wait for him to get back from seeing his grandparents so he can see "his" snapdragons are putting on new buds!!

I have several tulips blooming, as well... And I won't even blame Kim. This time, I purposefully planted several pink varieties! Wouldn't you know they all came in first?

Seeing all the flowers smiling in the front yard looks much more impressive in person (you're welcome to come see for yourselves!)

And, just for fun, I would like to bring back everyone's favorite game:

Name that Plant!

I have noticed some of my tulips are on little short stalks the first year they bloom and then the 2nd year they are normal height....

But now I have these new flowers that aren't showing any stalks under the beautiful little flowers...

Any ideas what these might be: 



Workin on the Garden

I don't know if you've noticed, but the weather has been GORGEOUS this weekend :) And we decided to capitalize on that yesterday. We started by doing a little shopping - Particularly, we went plant shopping!

Brad and I have had our eye on this large, bushy tree at the end of our porch lately. Neither of us like it and it scratches our column and gutters. PLUS, it obscures the view of the daylillies that are planted behind it. So we decided to replace it with a few azaleas.

Here is the BEFORE picture:


It took all three of us to get the job done. I sheared off several branches - Brad sawed the tree down - and Wes hauled all the branches to the backyard. Afterwards, I dug holes and placed the new azalea bushes. We were all three absolutely worn out, but the results are well worth the effort.

See for yourself:




In the process, I was able to relocate some daylillies to the front part of the garden so I am really happy to have recycled them :)




Oh - and Wes was super proud of himself when he was done hauling branches. I have to say, he did an impressive job. Take a look:

The azaleas are going to be a great addition to the front yard. One is absolutely covered in Blaauws Pink Azaleas and the other, slightly smaller one is an Encore Azalea named Autumn Amethyst. The cool thing is not only will it have the beautiful purple blooms from Spring through Fall, but when the blooms fade in winter, they leave behind Purple-ish Foilage How cool is that?

If you can't see them well enough in the photo, click the links in the previous paragraph :)

While I was at it yesterday, I planted my Red Hydrangea in front of the blue one from Mom Smith. I centered the red on in front of the kitchen window because word on the street tells me that another Mom Smith Hydrangea *might* be headed my way... But shh - you didn't hear that from me! :)

Besides, the red on still has a while before it catches up with the first one :) I just am hoping for some blooms this year :)

That's about all we worked on yesterday -But there will be more daylilly relocations scheduled for next weekend. Oh and there are now 4 small rose buds and a handful of green blueberries sprouting up in the back yard. Needless to day, I'm about to have lots of updating to do :)

Stay tuned for fun updates from the AWANA Grand Prix next Saturday :)

Tulip Time

I am really enjoying the early spring flowers in bloom right now so I thought I'd share a sampling :)

First off- Hyacinth :) They smell nice and most of mine came up purple so what's not to love?



And now for the excessive Tulip footage:

Last Saturday was our church's Easter Egg hunt. Brad was a little under the weather so he missed out, but Wes and I had a great time :)

Hello, Springtime, Is that You?

Last month's snow was absolutely gorgeous... I always love a good snow day because it justifies (sortof) the cold and wet weather if you get to have a day of fun to make up for it.

BUT SERIOUSLY!!! I am so ready to be done with Winter! I know lots of you are ready, too. So imagine my delight when I started to see a little green in my flower beds :) Whew, thank goodness! Spring will be here soon!

The first evidence we had was on the fig tree - as you can see it has gone crazy!!
Remember it used to look like THIS!

We might still have to wait for the figs to be delicious and plentiful - so in the meantime, enjoy these sights from my front yard:

Ah, dafodils - all of mine are restricted to this patch in the rear / center of the flowerbed... not sure who planted them like that so I'll probably redistribute them when they quit being so beautiful :)

This little sprig is new growth on my hydrangea! Yippee! I can't wait to see how it does this year! It had better bloom!!

These are some hyacinth bulbs I clustered in a pot - actually 2 pots - on my front porch :) They'll be so pretty when they bloom :)

The pansies have really taken off now that we have had some sun mixed in with the wind and rain :) Here's an impressive bunch:

And just look what I found over in front of the Iris bed - a hyacinth about to blossom :) in the background you can see the irises beginning to make little green shoots:

And we have something new to look forward to this summer - Last year Brad gave me the pink and white rose bushes for Valentine's Day and this year he sweetly gave me a Red Rose bush. I put it in the ground last weekend and look at how much it has grown since then:

Yes, I am officially looking forward to spring and summer time. I've got lots of bulbs in the ground and I can't wait to see how they do. I have alreday chosen the perfect spot to sit and watch the garden grow...

I'll save ya a seat if you care to join me :)