It was so beautiful today that we just had to go for a walk this afternoon. Our neighbor across the street has the nicest lawn on the block. He has a garden in back, but I've never had the courage to take him up on his offer to go over and pick zucchini and cucumbers whenever I feel like it. But his forsythia bush is screaming spring at us as we walk out the front door daily:
We walked a different route today, one that I've never taken on foot before (except during a big snowstorm one winter when the roads were awful and we were dying for eggs). I couldn't believe how beautiful these trees were. It's a little tough in the photo to see the huge magnolia in the background, but it was the largest I've ever seen:
The 10 houses before this one and the 10 after are big lawns and foundation plantings, so this one sticks out -- in a good way. I imagine a sweet old lady has lived in this house forever and she loves her spring flowers like she does her cats:
There's one thing from our walk that I couldn't show you. There's an amazing garden -- and I mean amazing -- that we passed by. I took photos from the sidewalk, but the garden is obviously the resident's pride and joy and I wouldn't feel right posting about it without asking permission first. I plan to walk down again tomorrow, so hopefully I'll catch the homeowner out and about and be able to share its beauty with you.
Back from our walk now...I picked up these clay pots (25 of various sizes) from my next-door-neighbor when he had a tag sale at the end of the summer for $3.00. I'm having a wonderful time deciding what to plant in them:
And yes, you spotted the last bag of that horrible Miracle Gro potting mix in the above photo. I'll use it for non-edible plants, like the sunflowers I plan to grow in those 6 large pots. I know they may be kind of small, but it's an experiment. In case you're wondering what I'm using for potting soil this year, purchased for the ungodly sum of $15.99 a bag at the good gardening center, I present:
And for fertilizer...I finally found WORM POOP! It was at Home Depot of all places. I even got lawn fertilizer so the weed and feed is officially not being used this spring (but maybe in the fall). Genie will be so proud:
VPH spent all day yesterday cleaning up the few leaves he missed in the fall. He is such a trooper. Now I just have to weed the perennial shade garden and put down fresh mulch. I also purchased 3 bleeding hearts to plant in here -- just above the 3rd rock from the bottom:
VPH also did some work on the wildflower patch. Note the wire fence on the patio that will go in front of the patch to try and keep the flowers from flopping over onto the patio:
See why this area is problematic for me? It's all coming in very sparsely. And I wasn't that fond of the out of control flop over in the rain and general chaos last year:
I've got two options here --
1.) Leave it be for a month and see what develops. If I don't like what I see, I think we're going to rip it all out and put in a perennial flower garden, even bulbs for early spring development next year.
2.) Use the perennial wildflower seed and poppy seed I have to fill in the blank spots and live with the chaos for another year.
I'm definitely leaning towards option 1.
VPH also cleared the leaves from the perimeter of the yard exposing the day lilies:
And you know how much fun he has playing in the bastard garden! He pulled all the garbage out of the ground and piled it to the left and pushed the yard debris pile back against the fence. He plans to put grass seed on the bare ground and do a dump run soon:
My forsythia bush and the weeds in full bloom. You can't even see the bed with hostas and the rhododendron in front of the fence:
The opposite side of the forsythia, cause I'm just digging on it:
In case you were wondering why we let the poison ivy grow out of the stump -- it's for privacy:
The lights from the gazebo are going up on Freecycle:
I've been cleaning up the veggie garden bit by bit. When I went to tidy up the trellis planter that had tomatoes in it, I found a little surprise. At one point last year I had planted garlic in a row in front of the tomatoes. It didn't do well and I ended up pulling them all, or so I thought! I can't believe one survived to stand tall front and center:
You have to look really, really, really close to find new growth on the oregano, but it's there:
We have big plans for tomorrow. Planting the rest of the seeds, building trellises, finishing the garden clean-up, over-seeding the lawn in time for Sunday's rain, etc. What will you be doing in your garden this weekend?
heather - wow you guys have really been busy! im impressed! i've been thinking of buying some worm poop myself. i cant wait to see how that works for you.
Posted by: Gina | April 19, 2008 at 09:02 AM
Gina -- I'll definitely let you know. The potting soil I'm using for the veggies doesn't have any fertilizer in it so I'll have to do something.
Posted by: Heather's Garden | April 20, 2008 at 11:39 AM
I'm very proud! Thanks for pimping the worm poop -- I need to track some down for myself, in fact...that reminds me... Happy spring!
Posted by: Genie | April 22, 2008 at 11:36 PM