catching up

It's been a busy spring. Boomer's been in school, we've been to California and we've done a lot of work on the gardens. So - time to catch up with some photos. I'm learning some lessons in gardening. One is that I have no eye for how much mulch to buy! Another is to read up on flowers before planting. A co-worker grows dinner plate dahlias and I always thought they were lovely. So - I bought some bulbs and planted them. I had no idea how high they would grow, nor did I know I would have to pull the bulbs each winter and replant them each spring. Those suckers better be pretty! You can kind of see that I have staked them.

These next ones are balloon flowers - they look pretty. They are perennials. I like that idea.

My hydrangea! We didn't plant it, but we resurrected it! When we started out in the yard this spring, it looked kind of sad. I wish I had a before picture. We had pachysandra growing all around it. (Did I spell that right?) I don't like that stuff much. So - one Saturday was just pulling that crap out. It has done wonders for the hydrangea. Apparently the pachysandra would suck up all the water. I've been working on it, trying to encourage a more blue color - but I have to say, I'm liking the color we are getting.

Two owners ago, they had a lot of rose bushes. Some survived the people we bought the house from. This one here had about 9 or 10 buds on it this week! We plan to transplant it in the fall - move it to a better location. We have a several red bushes, two white, one yellow, one pink and one we don't know yet because it hasn't bloomed - but there is a bud. They are so fragrant. I have taught the dog to smell the flowers!!

And of course - there's the boom doggie and other stuff we did to the house. We built a second railing for the back steps. We painted the steps and the front porch grey, with the facing white. We also got some fake wicker furniture for the front porch. I love to sit out there, as does Boomer.