Spring Garden Tour

I almost forgot about this today…

I’ve only been thinking about it all week but somehow, yesterday and today, it got lost in my brain amongst the lists of “to do’s” for Father’s Day, my parents anniversary, my teeth bleaching (don’t ask)… =0)

But I remembered! Just in the nick of time.  I’m sorry if some the plants look a bit bedraggled in these pictures.  I had to run out and take them in the heat of today (in the 90′s) instead of the morning or evening when it would have been kinder to them.  But here they are, my spots of beauty in my very low maintenance, child friendly (meaning I don’t put anything out there for them to destroy) yard.

First up are personal favorites:  The Hydrangeas

     

I just l.o.v.e. these flowers.  There actually three of them but the middle plant doesn’t have any flowers yet so I left it out of the pics.  I planted them last year so they are still small but I gave them plenty of room to grow.  They are doing really well this year so I’m hoping this time next year they will be significantly bigger.  Or just alive.  Yeah, I’ll settle for alive.  I love them… have I mentioned that?  I don’t know whether to cut some of the flowers or just leave them be.   I’m so torn. But I think I’ll wait for a couple more of the blue ones to bloom and then maybe snip a couple off to bless the inside of the house with.

Next on my list of favorites:  My Mother-in-Law’s Christmas Cactus

I know they aren’t much to look at this time of year but every winter they are a mass of color.  And besides that, they are off the scale in sentimentality.  My mother-in-law (who died almost 7 years ago of a brain aneurysm, Poppett was only 4 months old) grew these babies.  The entrance to the front door at her home was filled with these cactus.  And I think of her every time I look at them.  I loved them when she was the one taking care of them and I love them still, even with her gone.  They are in some much needed re-potting.  I’ve put it off for about as long as I can.  I’m terrified I’ll ruin them and that’s why I’ve held off so long.  But even some of the pots are breaking now so this fall, when the weather cools off, I’m biting the bullet and moving them to new pots.  Oh, I almost forgot, see that smaller one?  The one whose pot is broken (knocked over by some little backyard urchin)?  That was one Poppett and I “grew” from a clipping off of one of my MIL’s.  It’s an orange colored flower, my favorite of them all.  And it’s done wonderfully.  Once the re-potting happens, I’ll be growing some more clippings.

Another sentimental garden spot, but a recent addition, is McKee’s Memorial:

The flowers still need to fill but it’s going to be beautiful.  We were going to put her name on the stone but I think it looks, oh, I don’t know the word… more subtle? More striking?  I don’t know.  I just like it this way.  That’s all I know. 

And the most recent additions.  Our barrel planter:

We used to have bamboo in this barrel but it died last year and i finally got around to putting something else in it.  Once again, it has quite a bit of filling in to do but by the end of the summer, if I can keep it alive through the heat, it should be looking mighty fine.  A nice mass of color to brighten up our backyard.  The pot to the left has basil and oregano (looking bedraggled in the mid-day heat) that I L.O.V.E. to cook with.  I put off planting herbs for so long, not sure how to “use” them since I’ve always used dried herbs.  But it’s been easy and delicious.  I now have rosemary, cilantro and chives that I’ll be adding to the garden area in the next couple days. 

I had left over plants from the barrel planting so I decided to dress up the edge of the patio:

***Wordpress isn’t loading my picture… Sorry…I’ll try again later***

I would include pictures of our veggie garden but since I just posted about it a few days ago, I’ll hold off.  But if you’d like to check back in two weeks, I’m planning on posting updates.  I’m working on an expansion currently so there’ll be more to see.

That’s it for my garden tour.  Hope you enjoyed it.  Be sure and visit The Preacher’s Wife to see some BE-YOOtiful yards.  Really… I’m quite awed, jealous and humbled by them.  Go take a gander…I’m hoping that the green from my envy will soak into my thumb and then my yards will benefit from it.  That’s what I’m hoping…

Gardening 101

Now mind you, I’ve never taken a gardening class – do they even exist?  Well, if it does, I’m pretty sure they tell you one most important thing to do, outside of watering, is WEEDING!!!  Otherwise you end up with a garden that looks like this:

THAT garden, my friends, belongs to mea friend of mine.  She’s horrible about keeping up with the weeding.  Especially since she invested in some soaker hoses this year.  With very little hand-watering to do she tends to spend extra time on the computer instead of out becoming one with the dirt in her garden.  But when  I she finally paused outside long enough to take a good long gander at the state of her garden, she was HORRIFIED.  I, err I mean, she  was in quite a panic, thinking her poor baby veggies were soon going to be choked out by the big, bad, bully weeds at any moment. 

So that very morning, this pasty white, spend-to-much-time-inside gal spent 2 1/2 hours in the garden.  She was pulling weeds like a woman possessed, vowing the whole time to never let the weeds get that bad again (at least not this week anyway). 

Her kids even pitched in… for all of 3 minutes.  The boys were too distracted by the plethora of worms oozing out of every quadrant of the garden soil.  (I love worms! They are SOOO good for the soil. Last year there weren’t any to be found.  What a difference a year can make)  I could go into much detail about the worms since each one was closely scrutinized, inspected, and put through an agility test by the boys before being released back into it’s delicious garden soil home.  I think, “Go fourth and multiply…and poop a lot” was uttered several times.

(As you can see, this “friend” of mine has just a hard of time keeping up with her sons’ nails.  There goes not only her “Gardener of the Year” award but also her “Nail Technician of the Year” award!)

Here is the finished result:

Ahhh! That’s more like it.  You can actually see dirt around each plant now.  And I was only walking around like I was born without knees for 5 days afterwards!  I mean, SHE was.  Poor thing, totally  out of shape.

Rollie Pollies anyone??

Definition of gardening in the “A Boys’ Life Dictionary”*: “seeking out, identifying and studying the habits of each and every bug, creepy crawly and living nastiness found in any dirt area that your mother has planted precious vegetable and flower plants.  Best accomplished while your mother is on her hands and knees, grunting and recklessly attacking any and all weeds in the same vicinity.”

*Just to clarify, this is a totally fictional dictionary.  Although I think all us mothers of boys could easily combine our thoughts and publish just such a dictionary.*