Daffodil Bulbs

I planted myself a spring gift! 50 Daffodil Bulbs... 25 - Ice Folies ; 25 - Tahiti

Oh how I will love myself for doing it come spring!

New Rose Garden!

I am so excited! I bought 5 new rose bushes and am going to plant a rose garden this weekend. The roses are not impressive yet.. but I am hopeful for next year and for years to follow!

I bought 1 climbing and 4 knockout roses.

 

Here is a little sketch of the garden I am going to make at the back of my yard. I plan to plant them in the shape of an S as this garden is going to be in memory of my sister Sarah. She always loved roses!

If you look real hard you will find a few plants that are still in bloom around my house....(It's surprising anything survived through this hot hot summer!)

Happy Gardening everyone!

Daydreaming about spring planting..

We currently have a yard covered in snow with a few more inches on the way, sooooo I am daydreaming about spring planting.

Here is a backyard photo, from a good 10 years ago, at a prior house. (Sorry for the poor quality something odd happened when I scanned the print.)

Oh how I wish when I moved I had taken some of my grandma's iris that I transplanted into that yard.

2011 is going to be a big year for landscaping at our house. Our backyard at this house is just so bare. I really don't know where to start. I planted a perennial garden in the far back corner, you can read around it here and I planted a vegetable garden and herb garden that you are read about here and I planted some wildflowers, read about here. What I think I really needs are some shrubs, a few trees, and maybe a rose garden.

Here was a photo taken of our backyard before any of the above... It's really not much more exciting now. We spend this entire last year finishing the basement and making changes to the inside of our home. Now it's time to put some time into the backyard!

Is anyone else thinking about what they are going to plant this spring?

Blooming Flowers

It's fall and my flowers are still in full bloom. I'm not complaining, I'm going to just keep on enjoying these flowers which have been blooming for months. I think I only paid $1.19 for the packet of seeds!

New Inexpensive Perennial Garden

My new perennial garden (photo taken in harsh sun, but I was excited to show you)..

If you keep your eyes open a lot of stores are starting to close out their flowers and not just annuals, perennials too. The perennials they are closing out really need to get in the ground and may not have the best show this year.. but next year.. and the year after... and years to come, they will be beautiful!

A friend of mine ran across a huge variety marked down to $1 each! I'm not sure if she was just thinking about me or overwhelmed by the 40+ plants that she had in her garage that needed to get in the ground, but she shared! ;)

I had a corner of my backyard that was boring and needing some attention. Okay, yes most of my backyard is boring, but we've gone over that before. We bought the house 1 year ago and we can't do EVERYTHING at once.

So after shopping in my friends garage, (which I have done many times) I ended up with a great variety of perennials. Tickseed, catmint, speedwell, cooky, jacobs ladder, salvia, columbine, etc

I thought I better add a shrub in the mix so I picked up a beautiful hibiscus (our Home Depot has all shrubs 50% off), for $7.50.

It turned out very nice, but I want to fast forward to next year and see them all in bloom.

I moved my angel from my wild flower garden because those flowers grew so tall they were hiding it.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Update- Wild flowers & red tomatoes

It's always fun when you throw wild flower seeds down to see what comes up. To me when it's bloom time it's like opening present after present.

My wild flowers are just starting to bloom.

I find this orange one to be very pretty. I'm intrigued by the tiny looking flowers on the inside.














This pink one is just opening up, interesting.















This blue one looks like a little firework (fitting for the approaching 4th of July).












These very tiny white ones look like little butterflies.

And this one looks like a little orchid.

 

I challenge you to look closer at your wild flowers and really examine them. There is so much beauty in those little buds.

The vegetable garden is coming right along, it is nice to finally see some red tomatoes. 

 

My pear shaped cherry tomatoes are coming right along as well.

 

I had to remind myself what they were after they started forming.

I recently planted three .60 azaleas. Yes, you saw that right. I bought three 2.5 gallon azaleas at Lowe's for .60 each. I have no idea what color they will be, but in the very back corner of our property they will be perfect no matter the color. And I noticed while I was out there that we need to weedeat around the border of this bed. I also bought another plant for .60 but I have no idea what it is. It just says 'accent plant' on the tag and it has the most amazing peach flowers (only problem is they last for exactly 1 day and then fall off), and today there were not any completely open blooms to show you a picture off.

 

I planted some additional flowers in my hubbies new front flower bed. I figured it could use some more color until it starts filling in some more. The shrub next to his stone is a weigela and will eventually be 5 feet x 5 feet.

I'm linking to An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party, and Shabby Nest

The real reason...

Here is the real reason for the new front flower bed, a father's day gift for my husband. Yes, what other than something KU! My husband is a wonderful father to my two sons and we couldn't be more lucky then to have him in our lives. Happy Father's Day cupcake.

I didn't get to spend Father's Day with my dad today because we live a few hours apart but I get to spend a few days with him real soon (and am looking forward to it). Happy Father's Day to the best dad a girl can have! I love you dad!

New Front Garden

I added a new flower garden in the front of our house today. It's a lot larger then it looks in the photo. It's raised so it's hard to see the island shape of it.

I was attempting to tie the tree on the front corner of our lot, and add a place for some daylillies and a father's day gift for my hubby from my sons (I'll post soon about that).

Also note the new birdbath closer to the house.

I really hate pulling up healthy grass but at the same time I really like flowers! ;) P.S. This is day 5 without diet coke, amazingly not a single headache (of course this is the first day I felt like doing something other than sleep!)

First salad from the garden!

Tonight we enjoyed our first salad from our home garden. The tomatoes aren't ripe yet, so it consisted of a few types of lettuce, some homemade croutons and some chicken tenderloins hot off the grill. How nice it is to snip off just how much lettuce we need for dinner and not be wasteful!

Remember, this is coming from that 4x4 foot garden I planted new this year. It's just so easy to mantain.

Linking to DIY project parade, Mad Skills Monday.

The garden is coming to life

The garden is coming to life, even with the lack of sun.

I ended up with the following in it:

3 varieties of tomatoes,

2 varieties of bell peppers

5 varieties of lettuce,

cabbage,

cauliflower,

lots of strawberries,

garlic,

rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano, basil, and sage.

Garden planted!

Today was a beautiful day without rain! However, the rain should be picking back up tomorrow, so I took the opportunity to start planting our garden.

So far I've planted several varieties of tomatoes and peppers.

A bunch of herbs!

And lots of strawberries!

Who said gardening had to be hard? So far, with this square foot garden method, it's a breeze! By the way, my garden is 16 square feet. If all goes well this year I will add another 16 square foot garden next year.

The beginning of my garden...

I've been wanting so badly to start a vegetable garden in our backyard, but with everything going on this spring I didn't think I would find the time to get one started. After much motivation from fellow bloggers, encouragment from friends and family, and a devoted husband that was willing to help me out.... behold...the beginning of my vegetable garden.

What? I'm missing something? Oh that's right, the plants. Well, unfortunately it's supposed to rain for the next 4 days so I can't plant them until it dries up a bit. But I do have a plan to have them in by the end of the week.

And yes, I realize my garden doesn't look like the typical garden. But I am excited to say I am trying the 'square foot garden' method. I read Mel Bartholomew's book and decided it seemed to be the most practical garden for the needs of my family. If you haven't heard of it and are interested in gardening you really should pick up a copy.

If you have pics of your garden on your blog, be sure to leave me a comment so I can come check it out! I love to admire people's gardens!