First Strawberry!

Not quite red yet, but I am going to enjoy this little guy in a couple of days!!!

Front door containers

This year, I did a red theme in the front containers. Mainly as a feng shui block. I live on a T intersection and I read somewhere that red by the front door can block the negative energy from coming into the home. Plants are verbena, calibrachua, licorice plant, impatiens and anenome (which I had dead headed before making this photo)- pretty perennial flower.

To the left of the door:

To the right of the door:

New beds

Thanks to my husband and father for digging out 2 new beds and turning over the vegetable garden.

Planted some wild flower seeds in the front with Cy, and some seeds from my neighbor. In the back, I put in the tomatoes and peppers that I grew in the kitchen window from seed.

Mint is going crazy. Added some parsley, basil, rosemary and cilantro from the farmer's market and extra parsley from the neighbor.

Mothers garden

Things are certainly starting to come together.

Sedum is looking mighty fine, added some lamb's ear, thank's mom. I think I need to change my perennial garden name to mother's garden- since all of the plants are from mom.

New this year...

Garage garden

Not much to say about this garden now. Tulips are done. Lillys are going strong, yet to bloom. I put in a few other plants my mother gave me, an Aster and an Astilbe. But I think they aren't too happy there. They've not grown much and one may have died.

We did pull out the rocks from the front and put them as a border along this garden and straight around the vegetable garden. Plan is to till out where the rocks were and throw some flower seeds in there, in the front. We'll see if we get to that this year.

Vegetables

So I had no idea strawberries were perennials. Also had no idea until I looked at this photo on the computer that I actually had a berry coming up! See him down in the lower right?

Mixed in lettuce from my neighbor in with the strawberries. Last year, she gave me plants and I had yummy lettuce for months. Before I planted it, I removed most of the weeds and grass and mixed in my first batch of compost.

Vegetable garden

The yearly transformation of the weed garden into a vegetable garden is nearly complete. I'm pretty embarrassed of the before picture, and quite proud of the after. A bit more weeding to go, but plans are on for putting out the seedlings this week.

Before:

After!

Tulips

These tulips are already gone as I type this. But the bulbs I planted last fall did come up. I love the tall purple ones, nearly black in color. I had hoped the short yellow ones would look good with the dark purple, but they were crazy short and much earlier bloomers. They were gone by the time the purple opened. Live and learn.

Digging and Moving

It has been a crazy cold and wet spring. It has been raining on all my days off, so I'm a bit behind on my planting. Today, however, it was warm, sunny, yet muddy from last nights' rain, so I got out and dug some holes.

I expanded the perennial bed by about 2 feet, and kind of changed the shape of it. I would have dug more in the back, but it was all water. I moved some of the plants I put way too close together last year. Hopefully, when things start coming up, they'll not be crowding each other.

Before:

After:

I also planted a new Forsythia bush in the front yard. It's pretty much a staple in my neighborhood, and I love that they are a first sign of spring. This guy was a gift from my folks for my birthday. Thanks!

I dug up a Peony that was in this spot. I wanted something taller that could eventually mask that ugly chain link fence behind it. It is also below my boy's room, so maybe someday he'll see the yellow branches outside his window.

My neighbor loaned me some kind of tool to help lop the roots that were in the hole form a weed tree that grows along the house. That was nice, and it worked well.

I moved the Peony just a couple of feet from this spot, so it will be just in front.

After that, we just enjoyed the rest of the nice day. Hopefully the new and moved plants will prosper.

Happy Spring 2011!

This is the year of trees for me. For my birthday, my lovely sister and her family gave me a Magnolia Liliflora Jane. I'm so stoked! I wanted one for my front yard. My original plan was to get a Saucer magnolia, mainly because they grow up to 30 feet tall. But you know, I think this will work better with my plans. Now it will be more of an ornamental and not too shady since I eventually want to fill my front yard with flowers.

Also just ordered a little leaf Linden. I had checked around for prices, and I really did not want to spend $200 on a tree. I ordered through the arbor day foundation for $12 including shipping, and they included a Red Maple, for free! I'm sure the tree will be quite little, just a sapling, but I am patient and can wait for it to grow. That tree will go in the back to shade our house and patio from the crazy strong afternoon light we get.

No pictures today, but I'm planning on doing some photos tomorrow of the tulips and crocus who are coming up that we planted very haphazardly late last fall. The lillies and perennials are all coming up. I have much moving to do, I planted WAY too close together last year.

Also, planning on digging out 1/3 of the back yard, raising it up and planting all wild flowers. I bought a big sack of wildflower seeds from Target in the $1 bin. We'll see how those go. I guess I love a bargain.

Also, tomato plants and pepper seeds are growing well in the window. I have to thin them out, and that breaks my heart. I'm going to try to replant the babies in another peat nugget. I really don't need 150 tomato plants and 150 pepper plants, but I have friends and family I can give them to.

that is all for now.

Happy Spring!