Gardening

We visited at a local nursery last night to buy some perennials. The flowerbed at the front of the house (that's also where Rupert, the gargoyle, is living) has mainly coneflowers, gaillardia, some Stella D'oro daylilies, one butterfly bush (that we're babying along), some Jupiter's beard plants, some coral bells in various colors, and some Russian sage bushes. We had planted some hosta right around the white weeping cherry tree.

We wanted to keep the same kinds of plants, so we purchase more coneflowers, three burgundy gaillardia, and three more Stella D'oro lilies. A full flat of red salvia to plant as the front border because butterflies seem to love salvia and we like to watch the butterflies. We'll probably fill in some of the blank spots with a few annuals here and there.

By the front sidewalk, next to the house is a trellis shaped like 3 cats sitting together. We always plant three black-eyed Susan vines at the trellis and the vines will spend the summer twining up and around the frame of the trellis. It always looks cute....two vines with yellow flowers and the center vine has orange flowers and they always mix together as they grow. Orange and yellow marigolds right in front of the vine plants and then the hosta right next to the sidewalk.

Last year, we also started a moon garden in the side yard. We had planted some lambs ears there last spring (DH widened it out a bit with the rototiller on Monday) and we're amazed at how much they've spread this year. So we purchased two more nice-sized plants. Some yarrow and some thrift plants as well as more pinks. I'm keeping all the flowers in the moon garden white to reflect the best moonshine. The foliage, too, is a paler green, again for the moonshine. Some of the yarrow, I think it is, is a very pale blue, too.

So after dinner last night, DH and I went back outside and spent the evening planting flowers. It was really a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening....we had a chance to talk while we were working and catch up a bit with each other.

While he's in Louisville this weekend (and it's supposed to rain pretty much all weekend, too, darn it), I'll go through some of my gardening magazines to figure out which plants I want to try in containers this summer.

Summer's coming and it's gardening time!

Oh that is wonderful. You are preaching to the choir.

We have a big produce market up on the highway. And I like to go there on the day after Memorial Day, Tuesday. There is no one there early in the am and I just grab a cart and go through the greenhouses. Its usually sunny and warm, and it's so relaxing and fun.

Have fun with your dh and it's nice he is planting with you.

Sounds like you had a nice evening!

You'll have to take pics of your gardens, I've never heard tell of a moon garden before, sounds awesome

We've been in our house for 6 yrs now and we plan on starting a veggie garden, I want a raised one, they just seem so cool. I feel like the boys are old enough now that we can emjoy it together and I can garden and not have to watch them 100% of the time when we're out there!

Next year I plan on starting a flower garden, it's just so exciting!!

I've got many of my vegetable plant bought and many for the flowerpots as well. I just need the rain to stop.

How fun!! Sounds like a great bed. Did you take pics to share?

We planted 34 tomato plants, 4 zucchinis, 3 cucumbers, 1 basil, 5 peppers (4 bell and 1 jalapeno). I have one green tomato growing so far. All that is on the east side of the yard. I've also planted 3 new azaleas, some lobelia. Gradually the yard is shaping up. We've been in the house for 18 mos. and it was a disaster when we moved in. We poured a patio and walk, concreted the side yards, planted a japanese maple, 2 crepe myrtles, 4 citrus trees, and kept one maple and 5 japanese blueberries, and a few other shrubs - everything that didn't die from neglect.

All the gardens described above sound wonderful! I am very much an amateur gardener, always looking up stuff in books or online for advice and ideas, but I love digging around and sticking plants here and there.. One of the reasons we wanted to buy this house last summer was for the yard/garden. The house was built in 1947, and we are only the 2nd owners. The first (only) family who lived here before us really must have loved gardening, because they really made it look beautiful. So many large established plants. It took me a while to plan and figure out how I could do a veggie garden, because we didn't want to just rip out decades-old roses or euryops daisies or lantanas, so I finally figured out where the best places for sun were, and trimmed back existing plants a bit and planted my seedlings in between. It's been working out really well!

For flowers, I haven't added much in the back because of all the stuff already there, but I've had to do quite a bit of work in the west-facing front. I've had issues keeping things alive, either I forget to water enough, or they just burn out in the hot summer afternoon sun. I finally have some nice perrenials going, (I don't remember what they're called!!) so I just hope once it gets hotter and drier that they'll keep going.

Sounds just lovely!!! I am just now getting into gardening now that I am home more during the day and have more time now. I would consider myself a beginner, and that's an understatement. Looking forward to de-stress with some gardening....