 |
| Killing off the grass to make room for plants! |
The hostas we planted last summer are looking great. The "courtyard" they are in is pretty bare so I planted some English Ivy groundcover. It took way more ivy than I thought it would (23 containers in all), but I can't wait to watch it fill in the bare spots! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can find some Astilbe plants in Hesston--if so, our courtyard will be complete.
I have a thing for Ivy--frankly, any kind of vine--and I wish we could have it all over our property. Our neighbor's tree is covered with it and it is amazing! With our house being in the old part of town, vines just add a lot of character...According to Justin, our Hackberry tree also had vines on it--until he ripped them off. And why did he admit to that?! Oh well, I'll just live with having vines on the ground.
Around the corner from the hostas we have a flowerbed that receives plenty of sunlight. With the purchase of our house came this super wimpy rose bush that has never bloomed...I was hoping it would get torn out when they put up the fence, but I wasn't so lucky.
Once the ivy was in, I started digging out the rose and the few irises by it. A few weeks ago, Mom suggested we plant 3 Double-Red Knock Out Roses in the spot as it receives plenty of sunlight. Justin got super excited. He loves roses...I can't stand them. However, this particular spot receives plenty of sunshine and Wal-Mart had the roses for $11.75 each. I also can't stand Wal-Mart but at the price, it's worth making my annual appearance and letting Justin have a say in something ;-)
They're not very big but according to their container, they're bound to be 3-4' tall at maturation. We'll see if I can manage to keep them alive that long. Regardless, they're already adding a nice pop of color to the yard!
I also decided to put our salsa garden in today...I know it's a bit early, but I put it in at the same time last year and it did great! Amazingly enough, our garlic chives, onion chives and cilantro came back on their own...the Rosemary bush never hibernated so it's still hanging out in the corner!
 |
| Ready for some tomatoes and peppers! |
I decided to plant only two tomatoes this year--our three plants produced WAY too much fruit last time. I added an extra pepper plant (an Italian Pepperocini) and decided to try a Tomatillo plant for salsa verde...I hope it does well! Oh, and I also had to make sure we planted basil for making pesto and our favorite Thai Chicken dish.
Near the end of putting in the garden, I noticed Justin was no longer spraying the yard. I went inside and found this...
Sleeping on the job! His nap lasted about two seconds longer as we had an owl to deal with.
Birds LOVE the maple tree in our front yard. Problem is, we end up with bird doo-doo all over our vehicles within hours of visiting the carwash. And it's not just one or two spot--they leave our vehicles looking like a piece of Swiss cheese.
Solution? Hanging a fake owl in their tree!
Thankfully, Justin didn't fall out of the tree. Even though he knows what he is doing, it makes me beyond anxious to watch. And so far, the owl hasn't fallen out either. Hopefully the crazy $20 plastic bird of prey is an effective remedy...I like having birds around as they entertain Malcolm and after all, we did just buy a bird bath! However, paying to bathe our vehicles several times a week gets old AND expensive.
You are coming to Hesston next weekend?! I'm so sad I'll be recruiting in COLO while you're in my town.I'd love to meet up for coffee! Are you doing the Arboretum sale or StoneCreek? If StoneCreek you must check out the Arboretum! It's fairly amazing.
ReplyDelete