Garage sale money spent on new plants!!!

Some of these pictures were taken on May 12, and then some were taken on May 15. In those few days the minuet weigela bloomed pink flowers. It was just stunning. I spent my garage sale money on plants, and the majority of them went into this front garden. Along with the perrenials that were already coming up from Teresa's garden, it is looking nice.

I just love how this garden looked on May 25. So many flowers in bloom, and with the nice new mulch. I love my gardens!

I like the new mulch

My dad brought me over a big trailer full of dark brown mulch. I spent an afternoon shoveling mulch into the wheelbarrel, and then spreading the mulch around all the plants. It was a big job, but luckily I had wonderful helpers in my kids and a neighbor boy who is friends with one of my sons. Their help was greatly appreciated.

Here you can see the lily bulbs are starting to sprout.

The pink flowers are on a rose bush. It is called carefree wonder and has lovely pink double roses.

Focus on the front

I wanted my tulips to bloom so bad after the hard freeze of early April. Bloom they did, and they were absolutely beautiful. I loved them so much.

So pretty!!!

updating my pictures

You will be able to see some before and after mulching photos here. I think that the dark mulch looks really nice. I keep adding daylilies and rose bushes. These are pictures from April and May. Now this area is just packed with plants. I'll add those to another post once they are taken off the camera and put on the computer.

The burning bushes are all leafed out now and growing great!

The forsythias never did get the yellow blossoms like they were supposed to, however they are all leafed out and look good.

The rododendron bloomed. It only had a few blossoms, but they were beautiful.

Catching up on pictures -- I've got lots of them

This is in the front yard right by the garage door. Teresa's friend LeAnn was thinning out her irises, and gave them away. Teresa knew I would want them. I drove right over to their work and picked them up. Marissa and I planted them. They will be purple. Look at the beautiful red tulips next to the yellow daffodils. I just love them!

This is my other forsythia. Since I didn't get the yellow blossoms I'll just type in yellow.

This is a viburnum allegheny. It is the biggest shrub I bought. It is supposed to get really big. I put it in the corner by the bathroom window. It has plenty of space to grow and won't block anything.

I planted 6 butterfly bushes back here. This is one of them. They break dormancy late, so we'll see. 4 of them were only 50 cents each so not much was spent for them.

Here we have a variegated willow. When I bought this last fall it was so beautiful with delicate leaves and branches that swayed in the wind. I put it right outside on of the living room windows so I could see it from the house.

Here are the remains of my hostas that died when we got that awful two week deep freeze in early April. I think I lost all of my hostas. The shade garden is deemed a failure.

To be honest I'm not sure what this is. I think it is another of the butterfly bushes.

This is one of two burning bushes planted on the side of the house. I bought them in the fall and they were green, but then they did "burn" with red leaves before winter set in. I love burning bushes.

Here's my nikko blue hydreangea. Looks like a bunch of sticks, but it is supposed to have beautiful blue flowers this summer.

My rhododendron is going to bloom soon!

This is one of my two forsythias. They are supposed to have lots of yellow blossoms to herald the coming of spring. They don't have much in the way of blossoms, but I'll just be happy with leaves this year. At least it's not dead!

Now this one looks dead. It is a burkwoodii viburnum. It's supposed to flower in the spring too, and not only do I not have blossoms, but no leaves either. It might be a goner.

More pictures

It's kind of hard to tell, but this is a golden privet bush that I planted right in front of the deck.

These are some crimson pirate daylilies that I planted bare root. They looked pretty sickly but are looking better every day. Hopefully they will bloom this year. These are planted in the front right below my bedroom window.

This is the backyard again. The twigs are a red twig dogwood bush. It doesn't look very healthy. I'm not sure if it will make it. I also planted some more bare root daylily plants in mixed colors, but they definitely don't look like they will live.

Here we have a patch of dirt where I planted a bunch of lily bulbs. I planted stargazer, and a yellow one which I forget the name of. Sure hope they bloom, they looked beautiful on the box.

This is looking down from the deck. The taller plant is my rhododendron. It will have pinkish purple blooms. Also there is a nikko blue hydreangea bush. Also a anglojap yew, which is evergreen and thus the healthiest looking plant of all in my garden at that time.

This is on the side of our house. The sticks are actually a hot wonder rose bush that I bought from a local nursery for only $1! Next to it is a row along the side of the house of orange daylilies that Teresa gave me from her garden. I have another hot wonder rose bush at the end of the row.

Here you can see the daylilies in the row.

And this is the other hot wonder rose bush.

It's been a while

Here you can see that I've added an edging. I used the bricks that were edging the sides of the house. I think I've made better use of them here, and it didn't cost anything because they were already part of the landscape. Eventually I want to level them all out so it is a smooth continuous line, but that will be a big project for later.

New pictures finally ready

My daffodils made a beautiful centerpiece for the kitchen table. I just loved it.

April has seen some crazy weather. We experienced a deep freeze for about a week which destroyed my hostas. I tried covering them up, but they still froze. I read up about hostas and learned that I should cut the leaves back to the crown, and hopefully they will regrow.

Today I spent about 2 hours weeding the "shade garden" where I planted the hostas. It looks much better now than it does in this picture. The grass in the mulch is gone, unfortunately, I think the hostas are goners too. We'll see.

On a happier note, despite the freezes, and then the SNOW, my tulips and daffodils bloomed and were just beautiful. The daffodils are done blooming now, but the red tulips are going strong. Just look at these pictures!

They turned out so pretty, despite the fluctuating weather. We would have 70 degree days and 50 degree nights, followed by 30 degree days and nightly lows in the teens.