5.22.2012

Making a House a Home, Garden Style

As you may remember, I had lofty plans for the weekend my momma visited.  And in order to achieve checking off another item on the list, I actually took pictures.  I'm so proud of myself.

We are blessed enough to have our yard already landscaped.  The plants are all rather nice and native to the area, but its the same as many of our neighbors.  I've been waiting 10 years or so to have my own garden and plant what I fancy.  My momma helped make that happen.

Here are the before pictures.  They really aren't horrible.  I really just wanted to clean up the weeds, plant a few flower pots, and maybe replace the pine straw with mulch.


Right side of the house.  No plants here, just pine straw.


Front of the house.


Front porch with lovely pots my mom gave me.

Then, the fun began!  We brainstormed what I like and what my dream yard would have.  I knew we needed some bright pops of color (bright pink?) against all the gray and blue.  Plus, I'd love to have a fragrant flower  (jasmine, gardenia) to welcome guests.  I have always loved hydrangeas, so they made the top of the list.  Next, we planned where the plants would go, and made a list of how many to purchase.  I think I made three trips to Lowes and one to Home Depot.

Now, for the afters.



We transplanted the grassy mounds from the front of the house and added three gardenia bushes, plus mulch.


My hydrangeas!


 Gerber daisies and Confederate jasmine.

 Two jasmine frame the front porch.  I can't wait for these suckers to grow, bloom, and smell amazing.  They turn the air sweet.


And here are the lovely pots.  I really don't remember what we planted, I mainly chose based on color and sun requirement.

I'm terribly excited to enjoy the plants for the next several years.  It feels like a dream come true to have these beautiful and fragrant flowers in my own yard!  I need to pinch myself.  Anyone else garden this weekend?  What's your favorite plant or flower?

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

You flowers look great! You already know I LOVE flowers. I've been doing some cleaning up, removing ground cover and planting as well. I Love hydrangeas, but i find them so hard to bloom, so I just planted 3 and hoping they turn out good in a few years.

Peggy said...

Jennifer, Hydrangeas like shade in KS. Only 6 hours of sun but put them in the shade. You will get pink blooms in akaline soil and blue blooms in acidic soil. DO NOT trim them back in the fall, they bloom on the new growth. Muracid is good to use to feed them, after they bloom or to get them to bloom.