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.

My Backyard

Last October I found a bunch of shrubs on sale for $2 and under at Meijer. That began my interest in planting and gardening. I bought several bushes and went home, dug holes, and plopped the plants in. This is the back corner of my house. It was just grass up to the foundation. I planted the bushes, then put mulch around the plants. This spring I am raking up the mulch, putting down landscape fabric, and remulching. Up until the freezing weather hit us this week the plants were beginning to bud. The forsythia at the edge, over by the drain spout even had a few yellow flowers. For some reason the rest of the buds were just green. The tall plant in the back corner is a viburnum allegheny. There are 6 butterfly bushes planted here also. 3 of the 6 show signs of green growth. The other 3 might be dead. I got 4 of those butterfly bushes for only 50 cents each, and they might have been dead when I bought them. I've added some red brick to border this bed also. I removed the red brick from the sides of the house. I like it better back here. I'll have a picture of it later.

This is another view of the back of the house. I've planted other bushes around the chimney and deck. I'm most excited to see the rhododendron bloom, and the nikko blue hydrangea. Last week I planted 6 lily flowers. I also planted 3 cardinal flowers under the window next to the deck. The cardinal flowers came from Teresa.

These are 2 rose of sharon bushes, and one petit bleu "bluebeard" bush.

Bad Weather

The weather is soooooo bad! We went from a high in the 70's to below freezing. A freeze warning has been in effect for 3 days now, and the temp will stay below freezing until Sunday. It is currently snowing outside. I am so upset. My daffodils continued to bloom so well until the cold weather came in. Now they are all drooping to the ground. I am most worried about my tulips. I could see the red buds inside them, now all those too are drooping to the ground. I'm afraid they will be ruined and I won't get to see them bloom. In the picture you can see two daffodil blooms. Before the cold weather hit there were probalby 25 in bloom, and in between them are the unbloomed red tulips. I really hope they don't die. I want to see those tulips!!!



















Also of concern are my hostas that I planted in my shade garden. This area has complete shade until around 3:00 in the afternoon. I know that hostas do very well in this type of light, so I planted 6 that I bought on sale at Meijer. I also planted some bare root hostas in this garden too. Unfortunately, a hard freeze that we have gotten will kill hostas once they are leafed out like this. I covered them with buckets but they were already shriveled and slimy looking. I checked on them this afternoon and they still didn't look great, but I'm still hoping they will be OK. I put the buckets back on them. Today is Friday, and the weather won't make it safe to keep them uncovered until at least Monday afternoon. Lesson learned is not to plant too early in the season! I was just so anxious to plant because it is a very rewarding and enjoyable hobby.