finally, pictures!

Its been a couple weeks since I updated, but I've been really busy around the house getting everything ready for the baby. And napping. A LOT of napping. I hardly have energy to garden, and weeding is getting harder to do, too. Hopefully my garden will hang in there until I'm back to full capacity.

I finally got a new camera, and while I had been debating waiting until closer to the due date, to see if prices go down anymore, I'm glad I got it now, because its actually more complicated to use than I expected. I got the Canon Rebel T1i, for those imaginary people that read my blog who might be interested.

So here's a little garden tour to start things off! This is my favorite area in the mornings, although it doesn't photograph as nicely as I would like, I'm sure in years to come it will be more impressive. I just love the way the sun hits this garden and lights up the Coral Bark Maple and Virginia Creeper. I have a great view of this garden from my kitchen table.































Here's another view with my Maiku Jaku tree in the foreground. This tree is one of my favorites, and I think its very happy in this spot. I just love how pretty the Bee Balm is when lit by that sun, it just glows!






















Luscious red Bee Balm! I tried some in another bed last year and it all died, but that bed is the death bed! I had only one plant survive in there, but I realize now that I put too much compost and not enough topsoil in there. I will revamp it, maybe next year. It needs to some major work, the soil is the worst in the yard there, it turns into a clay bowl of dirt soup when it rains, and stays that way for days and days. Plus, I read that Bee Balm likes a moist soil, and that area gets baked by the sun all day. This new garden bed it is in seems pretty ideal, the soil holds moisture well, and it gets morning sun, and late afternoon shade.



























Here's where the Graham Thomas roses went, you can see that the Veronica Speedwell "Icicles" are just about to bloom. I'm pretty happy with these plants, as I left them in their nursery pots all winter ( I do that a lot), but they bounced back great once they were in the ground. You can see how weedy the areas between the bed are, but they look a lot better then when we moved in!





















Well, I hope the formatting worked out OK, if it looks weird to you imaginary readers out there, let me know! This is the first time I've posted pictures for a blog before.

Camera fail!

Despite the fact that I'm sure that rogue battery charger must be somewhere in the house, I broke down and ordered a new one, so that I could finally start posting pictures of my garden. Sadly, once, I plugged in my charged battery, I find out my CAMERA is now broken. Argh! So once again, rather than show some pretty pictures, I must merely catalog the new bed in words. How archaic ;)

The new bed put in sort of butts against the existing bed of mostly Bee Balm, and I'm going with a cottage garden theme here. I planted a few Foxgloves, Miss Manners Obedient Plant, some miscellaneous Asiatic Lilies, Verbena "Snowflurry", white narrow leaf Zinnias and a perennial Heliotrope. I left the ground unmulched to encourage reseeding... we'll see how that works. More weeding for me, that's for sure. I'm wondering if there's any mulch that would allow the seeds to germinate .. leaf mulch maybe? The Graham Thomas roses look like they are about to bloom any moment now, and I can't wait!

buds!

Noticed today that one of my Graham Thomas roses already has buds on it. I'm so glad I'm keeping this blog, because it didn't seem that long ago that I planted it, but looking back, I guess it was 10 days ago... not bad, way to go plant! The MAC roses seem to be recovering some, I'm hoping they start putting out some new growth and looking perkier, I am really looking forward to them on my window outside the office, assuming they get enough sun out there.

In other news, I am SUCH a discount plant addict, it doesn't help that the Lowe's is less then 5 minutes from my work, and right by the sandwich place I frequent for lunch, but it might be out of hand. My deck is covered with Salvias now, can you believe I picked up 10 quart sized pots or so for 50 cents each? Also picked up half a dozen of "Silver Mound" Artemisia, same size and price, two Miss Kim Lilacs in 1 gallon pots, an unnamed hibiscus (not hardy), two foxgloves, and a Boston Fern for 2 dollars a piece. Oh and I can't even count how many bulbs I picked up... sheesh!

I plan on putting the Salvias with the Knock Out Roses, and the Artemisia is going to go in a placeholder bed until I put together the stock tank pond! I'm hoping to soften the edge of it with various silver foliaged plants.... still not sure where it will go yet. Somewhere fabulous! Think I'll use the Miss Kims to soften the edge of the former veggie garden, right now its a very hard rectangle.

my poor feets!

I suppose I am not taking it easy enough as a 21 week pregnant woman should be, but I spent a good 3 hours or so over at Big Bloomers Flower Farm in Sanford yesterday. My feet are so swollen now! I bought myself some flowers, they have such a great selection there, and their annuals are generally less then 2 dollars for a 4 pack, and lots of unusual types. Picked up some clematis that I fear will be duds... we'll see. Its really rainy right now so I won't be able to plant. Of course, I completely forgot to get the Coral Honeysuckle that I saw pictured at Randy and Meg's Garden Paradise a local garden blogger that I love to read. I wanted to get it at Big Bloomers because they generally have pretty good prices, and I'm a cheap gardener! I hope Randy and Meg don't mind me using their photo!

going to be sore tomorrow

Today was the most gardening I think I've ever done in 1 day. Pretty much all morning and afternoon until 5pm was spent working in the garden, and I have a lot to show! I finally, finally, FINALLY got the Phlox and Veronica Speedwell 'Icicle' planted, which I have had shamefully sitting in pots for over a year on my deck. Also planted were the red Salvias I have had for several weeks. Terrible, I know, but I am a discount plant addict, and as such, I'm always buying things for cheap and then trying to find a place for them, and there is a Lowe's 5 minutes from my workplace. Its worked out in my favor so far, as I have gotten a really great bed full of perennials for probably 30 dollars. When I find my battery charger I'll post some pictures.

So today, I planted in the bed with the Graham Thomas roses, 10 Montbresia, 50 Gladiolus, 9 Lilies, 3 Veronica Speedwell and some Red Salvias. Sadly, all this work comes to just a handful of above ground plants for me to look at. Boo!

edit: just realized I should write down these plants I got as well: Apricot Twist Wallflower "Erysimum 'Apricot Twist'" and Ballerina Red Armeria "Armeria pseudarmeria 'Ballerina Red'" The Wallflower went into the drought tolerant bed, and is looking pretty good already. Both were Lowe's discount bin impulse buys... not sure what I will do with the Armeria.

le sigh!

This isn't going to be a very exciting blog unless I can find my battery charger for the camera, y'all! But since this is mostly a record for myself, I want to note that the Irises and Allium are just about to break buds, and that one of the Coneflowers in the far right corner have had fat, green, half-formed blooms for at least 2 weeks now. Oh and the Hydrangea in the shadier bed just formed the teeniest green buds, as do all the Confederate Jasmine. Most exciting, the plant which name I can't recall, that I really thought wouldn't make it through the winter is starting to bud out. I was almost positive it was dead! Wouldn't that be nicer with pictures? Maybe I'll find the charger this weekend.

I just got 4 roses in the mail, 2 Sombreuil Roses and 2 Madame Alfred Carriere Roses. The MAC have a little bit of powdery mildew, hopefully that will disappear. I took all next week off, and my goal is to get my beds all planted, and mulched. I'm going to try keeping the MAC in a pot on my north wall for a little bit and see if it can survive well enough. If it can, I'll be building a big trellis up to the office window and letting it climb up the whole wall. I've heard the plant will grow 15 feet in a season, so I'd like to get in the ground ASAP. The Sombruil are going on the posts that were put in by the previous residents for a very flimsy trellis - just some 4x4 posts with bamboo poles resting on the fence. I've read this makes a nice pillar rose.

The beginning

This is what I started with, upon moving into our fabulous new (and first!) home: we had begun negotiations on the property in February and moved in at the end of March. A lot had changed while the home stood empty, and the large vegetable plot was UNBELIEVABLY overrun with weeds. Its been a steady battle since then, both against the weeds, and my ever-changing vision for the space: "Its going to be a beautiful potager! No wait, a lush tropical setting. No, better yet, a formal garden with a firepit! No, not formal; cottage style. I love cottage style!" Still struggling with an overarching design, I am just going with what strikes me, and the plants I have available to me. We'll see where it takes me...