Another Weekend in the Garden

I love the results of gardening.  The process of getting there, however is long and EXHAUSTING. I spent most of my weekend working in the garden.  Some areas are looking much better, others are still in progress (read: looking worse, but will look better soon).  I made significant progress on some of the "To Do" items I mentioned in my last garden post, and crossing things off a to do list is always fun.

The big accomplishment this weekend was the garden between the house and driveway.  This is the longest planting area we have and has the tendency to look very overgrown no matter how much I try to weed.  Last year, we planted some flowers here, but its an odd space.  We really only see it when we pull in the driveway (there isn't much of a view from the front or back yards), so spending a lot of money to fill it with flowers just didn't seem to make sense.  We decided that ground cover was in order.

I always get a little eager to get started on projects and sometimes I forget to take a full "before" ...... so imagine this garden with a LOT more weeds.

Since it will take the ground cover a year or two to really fill in (and I need instant gratification), I decided to put Hubby's herbs that usually sit on the back steps to good use.

We replanted them in uniform pots, then 'planted' the pots down in the garden.  That way, the ground cover won't take over the herbs, and the herbs still remain contained.

Much better view when we drive into the driveway now!

This weekend, I also:

got started with landscape fabric and stepping stones in the veggie garden,

and dug up more rocks from the front yard in preparation for eventual new grass.

Not the most exciting shots, I know, so I'll leave you with a few yard glamour shots.

Did you spend some time outside this weekend?

Punch of Pink

This week there was a new development in my "Name that Plant" game. For months I had seen 3 stalks growing in my garden on the side of the driveway and had zero idea what they were.  The only thing I knew was that they looked purposeful, so I let them live when I did massive weeding of that area (formerly known as the jungle).  I am emphatically glad I did.

As I was watering the new plantings in the front yard, I was startled by a pop of color.  I mean literally startled.  I stopped in my tracks and said aloud something to the effect of "whoa nelly!"  I'm cool like that.  If my neighbors heard me they probably think I'm nuts.  That may be so, but you would be shocked to if your normally green side garden (I didn't plant there this year so I could see what popped up) suddenly had 2 (soon to be 3) gigantic pink flowers!

The pictures don't even do justice, I swear they are at least 6 inches in diameter and bright!  My pictures were taken at dusk, so the colors were a bit muted (yes, that is muted!).  I have learned they are some type of Oriental Lily, but if you have any idea what variety, please share.

Any surprises in your gardens lately?

Veggie Garden- Phase 2

And then there were 2! See Phase 1 here.

The second planter was a much larger task than I was expecting it to be.  Not the actual installation or planting, but the getting of the planter box.  The original was from Home Depot and less than 2 weeks later not only did they have no more of the same kind, they had never heard of that brand!  Commence frustration.  Do we go for a mis-matching planter of the same size?  I begrudgingly bought the other planter, but attempted to hunt down the right one (I spent more time calling area Home Depots than I'd care to admit to).  Luckily an e-mail direct to the manufacturer of our preferred planter was fruitful and I was able to order one direct from them for the same price.  Yay! I was also assured that next year when we intend to add 1 or 2 more planters they will still be available through direct order if we can't find them at Home Depot again.  Double Yay!

Planter 1 is now the home of  2 thriving cucumber plants, a struggling green bean, 3 strawberry plants, one mystery plant from my sister, 2 cauliflower, cilantro, oregano, dill, sage, rosemary, and basil.

Planter 2 is a little zestier, housing 2 habanero peppers, 6 cherry bomb hot peppers, 2 red bell peppers, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper and 4 cauliflower.  One of these things is not like the other.  I insisted on buying the cauliflower, whereas the rest are of Hubby's choosing- could you tell?

In other exciting garden news (what, you don't find garden news exciting?!) our brandy dandy new composter is on the truck for delivery as we speak.  The counter-top bin is still en route.

If you couldn't guess- this whole gardening thing is new to us.  Its uncharted territory and we're doing a lot of experimenting this year.  By next year, we'll be experts!  more or less...