Gardening

My parents love to work in the yard. Both of them. Growing up, I did not, but I am slowly learning to enjoy it. Don't read too much into that - I do not mow the lawn or trim the edges. Neither does Bryan, in fact, he hates being outside unless it is sports related. We have a landscaping crew who tends to our weekly lawn maintenance once a week from April - September. They only touch our flowerbeds once a year, which happened to be when they almost burned our house down last week :( Honestly, it wasn't their fault & could have happened to anyone. We have them trim all of the plants, shrubs & trees and then they mulch. This year it took 60 bags to mulch the front & the back. That is exactly why I do not have a desire to mulch.

 

But the flowers are a different story. As I mentioned yesterday, I have probably invested about 20 hours in the last month prepping the beds. I have hand pruned several plants, pulled a TON of weeds (they got out of control over the winter!) and I planted a lot of flowers. I wouldn't say that gardening is a hobby, but I have enjoyed spending more time outside working in the yard because it beautifies the house & makes me proud to know that I did it. Actually, this is the first year I can truly say that I did it 100% myself without help from Bryan or my parents.

 

I was talking with a friend about what I have been doing & she asked if I took any pictures. Well, no but I should after all the time I committed! So these pictures are for me to enjoy. And maybe my mom, since she likes gardening more than me!

 

In the front we planted vincas:

 

 

Since we have lived here 7 years, we have finally figured out what can stand the Texas heat all summer & not get eaten by rabbits. We've wasted a lot of money on other flowers that either got eaten or died but the vincas will last until September. By then they will be tall & really fill in the flower bed. This year I chose a mix of pink, purple & white.

 

Also, in the corner of the bottom picture are my day lilies. My mom helped me plant these years ago & I love them! They come back every spring & bloom all summer long.

 

One of our landscapers a few years ago suggested I plant spirea & I am so glad I did:

 

 

It is a green plant all year long but blooms purple flowers in the spring & early summer. Even better, it comes back all year also! There is a pot behind the spirea that we had a yucca plant in for years but I got tired of it so we pulled it & I decided to try geraniums this summer. The rabbits eat them so I have never been able to plant them in the ground. We'll see how they survive the heat this summer.

 

When you drive up our driveway, we have one big pot by the garage door. I tried a mix of petunia wave in this pot (4 small plants). This is similar to the geraniums - I know the bunnies love them so I am hoping they do ok in the pot:

 

 

In the back we have 1 spot that gets part sun & part shade so we planted a red dragon wing begonia. I thought it was pretty last year so we tried it here & it did great. Bryan actually suggested I get the same thing because he enjoyed it & I lucked out & found one:

 

 

A lot of people plant begonias in their front yard here because they do well in the heat & the bunnies don't eat them, but Bryan doesn't like them so I'm glad he likes this one since it is a different variety.

 

I also purchased 2 large hibiscus plants for either side of the pool. One is orange, called Disco Diva & the other is yellow, called Social Butterfly. I thought the names were appropriate for this family! Unfortunately, they don't have any open blooms yet:

 

 

The hibiscus is the plant on the right. The flowers on the left are actually sunpatiens. I have always liked impatiens but they are shade flowers & we don't have any shade. Apparently these are a newer breed but they bloom in full sun. I bought 3 plants - 2 pink, which I planted in the back & 1 white, which I planted in the front. They look beautiful so I'm curious to see how they do.

 

Thank goodness we bought all of the pots last year & we laid the foundation with stone on the bottom & good soil, so all I had to do this year was add fresh planting mix on top & fertilize. I tell you what, gardening can be an expensive hobby!

 

I've also spent a lot of time cleaning off the back patio, furniture, etc. I have a bench in the front that I got for Christmas a few year's ago that had really faded so I bought a can of spray paint & tried to revitalize it:

 

 

I was going to paint in black & then I saw this can that said "Satin Espresso". In my mind, I envisioned it would be pretty like our outdoor furniture in the back, but after I painted it, I realized it just looked brown & I should have stuck with black. Oh-well. It looks better than it did!

 

The only other things I have splurged on was a new outdoor pillow & a watering can:

 

 

I saw that pillow & Kohl's & they had the price marked incorrectly so I got it crazy cheap. Sophie absolutely loves it! I think she just likes saying the word flamingo :) And my watering can was my mother's day gift for myself. My can from last year got played with over the winter & somehow got a crack. Don't know who could have possibly done that! But I quickly realized I was going to need something to help water all my new plants.

 

Last but not least, our landscaping in the back looks great. My favorite is still our palm plant/tree. Not sure which one it is really:

 

 

The azalea's in the back bloomed all spring & they were gorgeous! My biggest complaint is that when they are finished blooming, they shed & they have shed all over the pool. Believe me, I'm the one out there cleaning it & it has been a beating. I would not recommend that to anyone else.

 

So that's my little intro to gardening. If you are still reading this, I am sure you are bored, but I am curious to take these same pictures 5 months from now to see how everything looks. Until then, I'll be relaxing in the pool with the rest of my family now that the hard work is done.