The Front Flowerbed

Just thought I'd post a few pictures of our front flowerbeds. As of now, not many blooms, but I'm hoping for that to change in a few weeks, as most of the blooming shrubs are cyclical. We have encore azaleas, knock-out roses, verbena, pintas, a new little sago palm, small sprouts (from seeds) of what will be heavenly blue morning glories (that's what they are called, I'm not just saying they will be a heavenly blue color, LOL!), and a pretty little Jane Magnolia tree (only blooms in the Spring before the leaves sprout).

The big picture from the front of the house. The grass is a little thin near the driveway, but I'm working on that!

3 groupings of Pintas, morning glories (from seeds) and my little sago palm. You can also see what is left of the blooms from the hydrangeas I planted in the small beds on either side of the garage. They were so pretty! Now the blooms are dying, but the green plant is still thriving so hopefully they will re-bloom :)

Oh, and see that white flagstone walkway on the left side? I did that! I had to dig out a large portion of the flowerbed, place the stones and then fill in the gaps with crushed granite, but I am very happy with the result. Now people can park their cars in my driveway and not get out and step directly into the flowerbed! Oh, and the stones around the entire bed - yep, I did that too :) Its so much prettier with the stone border!

Encore azaleas on the back row, and knock-out roses in front - see the lone bloom?? Give these a year or 2 and we'll have a nice, thick hedge across the patio. I can't wait to see these in full-bloom in a few years!

My bargain Jane Magnolia tree (got it for $25 when everywhere else had the same sized tree for $145+), verbena, and behind the tree are a few of the encore azaleas.

On the right, Alex's aloe vera plant; middle, 2 of Morgann's Dahlia seeds have sprouted; left, Ian's Delphinium are slow growers, apparently. He has one single teeny-tiny sprout!

Can you see it? Its in the lower section of the pot.

Pretty pintas!

The pintas are in bloom, and a favorite of butterflies :) We find them out there all the time. Love it!!!

Headcount

At this time, it looks as though we have:

8-10 tiny little cucumbers

3 or 4 blossoms on the sweet pea vine

3 growing tomatoes

1 huge head of cauliflower

3-4 tiny little sprouts of broccoli (Ian will be so relieved since we had to cut off what had originally grown when it sprouted flowers - my bad!)

1 little blossom on the jalapeno plant

1 crazy-growing pumpkin vine with allot of yellow blooms

And the rest of the plants are growing and looking good :)

I'm so excited!!!

For the kids

What better time than spring to learn about butterflies??? And since we have planted butterfly-friendly plants in both the front & back beds, this should prove to be a fun "experiment" for the entire family! The kids are going to be sooooooo excited :)

New-found Interests

Who knew that our family was into gardens & flowers?!? Certainly not me!! Seriously had no idea that if I would just get out there and dig out the ugly, I would find such pleasure in planting the beautiful. It is something that I find myself doing at various times throughout the day & week. I have noticed that as I drift off to sleep, I'm thinking about what I need to do in the front flower bed, where I should put what, how I should have done this or that differently, etc., etc., etc. And I've also noticed that I find reason to go way out of my way to "happen by" my favorite nursery. Its an on-going fixation. And its one that I swore I didn't have! "No, I am not going to work in my flower bed, even though it is overrun with grass and tacky. I'll just pay someone else to clean it out". If only I had known then what I know now...

And did you know that not only have I found something that I enjoy, but my kiddos are starting to find a passion for "pretty" too! For instance, Alex had been begging me for weeks to go to Lowe's, which just happens to be right across the street from our subdivision entrance. Every time we drove past, he would plead with me to stop in. I've put off doing so because I had no need to stop in there - I really don't enjoy spending my "extra" time wandering the aisles of any home improvement store, but I really dislike Lowe's because of their customer service, or lack thereof. But I had need to drop in there last week for something, so I took Alex with me to look at whatever it was that was so important. So, while I browsed around the lawn & garden area looking at this & that, he disappeared for about 5 minutes. When he returned, he said that I had to follow him into the store so that he could "show me something". He took me inside the sliding doors and led me directly to the indoor plants. I'm guessing that there must have been a spotlight on the specific area he took me too, and there must have been angels singing "Handel's Messiah" because the begging and pleading and bartering that commenced was just over-the-top hilarious! He had his eye on a Venus FlyTrap (I guess pretty is in the eye of the beholder, huh?). I had to give in when he agreed to go 50/50 on the cost - his money is being saved to buy a new iPod Touch, and he refuses to spend a dime of it on anything else. He brought his precious purchase home and then begged to get it planted. But I made him wait for 2 whole days before allowing him to do so - he had school work to be finished first! But he has taken such pride in his dirty little terrarium, keeping it in the window that gets the most sun in the evenings, checking it for moisture, etc.

And then tonight as we were again roaming around Lowe's, Alex asked if we could purchase a new aloe vera plant, as ours bit the dust during the last freeze of the winter. Daddy quickly said "OK", which then led to the begging & pleading of the other 2 kiddos. They too wanted the opportunity to plant something. So, we took them over to the seed section and allowed them each to pick 1 perenial flower that they could grown in a pot inside of the house. You would have thought that we'd won the lottery! Everyone left the store happy, and we all left with something that will grow into something beautiful.

Well, we hope so anyway....stay tuned :)

Spring has sprung!

And so has our garden!! So far, we haven't killed anything, and are starting to see some fruit & veggies :) Strawberries have been going crazy - we get 2 or 3 a week from our 2 very small plants, I just spotted the very first tomato, and the rest of plants are starting to bloom, so fruit/veggies should be just around the corner!!!!

Our garden!

From back left, sweet peas, asparagus tree & cucumbers.

Middle left to right, jalapeno plant & cauliflower.

Bottom center, butterfly plant.

In the back is the cucumber bush, 2 tomato plants on the right, center is the cauliflower plant and the broccoli plant (that sprouted flowers so we had to cut it off and hope it grows again), and bottom center is the peanut plant with a few little flowers (marigolds in the corner).

Back left is the pumpkin vine, to the right is the sweet pea vine, in the middle are the 2 tiny little green bean plants that started as seedlings, the jalapeno plant to the right, then the 2 strawberry plants toward the bottom (marigolds in the corner).

And last but not least, more seedlings that have sprouted - yellow onions, carrots and red/green peppers!

I told Michael that we are going to need to build another box next to our existing garden as I don't have the space to plant the seed pots once they are ready. So, we'll be back at the building and buying dirt phase in just another few weeks if these continue to grow :)

Not bad for someone who had no clue what she was doing, huh???