Hydrangeas in my Gardens

I have been busy working with Mr. M. on the dry wall in the garage.

My gardens have still been growing like mad.

The weeds I mean.

I stole a few minutes and took some pictures of the blooms right now.

Potted boxwood on the brick patio.

Pea Gee hydrangea bush mixed in with the fairy roses.

Pea Gee hydrangea along the pathway to the fire pit.

As you can see, I really love these white Hydrangeas.

They are so hardy, great for full sun.

White roses in bloom again.

The new garden FULL OF WEEDS.

Hydrangea turning colors.

Love the pink.

A new Pea Gee waiting to be planted.

Yeah, I still have a few left that I have to plant.

I have been trying to get out and weed and plant, but the renovation work has to be done first.

Oh well, I will be on vacation in a couple of weeks and I can finish that to do list.

And you?

Did you finish all of your garden planting this year, or have you found some last minute ones you just had to add to your gardens?

New Garden

Maximizing my time.

This week I am back to my normal work week leaving me with two days off.

I was finally able to fix the fire pit and plant the new garden.

This is the path to the fire pit.

It was originally red sand left over from a pool installation.

I hated the sand, it stained everything.

Today we will finish the far right corner and put the chairs back.

As for the kids having a place to play in the sand. 

 I think I have talked Mr. M. into building a sand box, seeing as that tree house has still not been built.

I washed the stones last night.

They look and feel like the pebbles from Olcott Beach.

I am glad I choose to go with the larger stone.

The left side of the garden was just planted last year.

Each year I will add a few plants until it looks like a full lush English garden.

No room for weeds.

This is the start of the new garden.

I have two flowering ornamental pear trees.

A Thuja Green Giant tree.

Two Limelight hydrangea bushes.

Several blue berry bushes.  That the birds have already discovered.

A Catmint plant.

 Some creeping phlox.

Boxwood bushes.

A pink rose bush.

Lavender.

Delphinium.

Foxglove.

One of my ROCKS.

I left plenty of room to add 6 of my arborvitae bushes that are in planters for the summer.

After two years of being in planters they are a nice size for my gardens.

Next year I will go with boxwood bushes in my planters.

I took these pictures in the morning so I wouldn't have the blaring sun, only problem, fog.

Oh well. 

At least my garden is planted and I can enjoy our 4th of July party/birthday party.

Thanks for stopping by.

I hope everyone has a wonderful July 4th.

Walk Through

I finally had a few days with no rain last week.

The pathways are in.

It is now easier to walk through with out getting muddy.

This pathway goes from the back yard to the deck and patios.

I put in walkways where Mr. M. can not reach with his lawn tractor.

And he does not like to weed eat.

I still have to mulch, but that is the easy part.

Pretty pink rose bush.

Purple Phlox.

Quite a difference.

My youngest son wanted to know why mom was taking pictures of the walkway in her pj's.

So early in the morning.

I tried doing it on a sunny day, but the pictures were over exposed.

Hydrangeas.

I have a love/hate relationship with them.

I love them.

They hate me.

Well, not really.

I need to plant them in better spots.

I am hoping this pretty pink one is in a happy place.

\\

This new pathway is next to the pool.

The kids like to Hop Scotch through.

Another area Mr. M. does not like to do.

SO

 I fixed it for him.

With pretty flowers!

This little guy is one of the pink fairy roses.

Like the ones in the front and by the deck.

Yes, he will probably grow so big I will have to move the pathway to somewhere else.

That is the fun of flower gardening.

More pink fairy roses.

I do love them so.

They tend to be less maintenance than regular roses.

Pink Cone flowers.

Pink phlox.

Multi pinks and red Sweet William.

Behind the wild growing asparagus and in front of the pine tree is where the next flower garden is going.

That hill will be transformed into a beautiful garden within the next few weeks.

This is my left over pile.

 I also bought a few trees on sale.

In the fall I will add the evergreen bushes from the pots on the deck.

Then that is it.

I swear.

No more new gardens this year.

I think.

He hopes.

This is why.

Why I love my roses.
This is a bunch of my pink fairy roses and pink climbing roses.
Love them.
They smell divine.

And you?
Why do you garden?

Ballet Slipper Pink

I started painting my daughter's desk chair.

Ballet Slipper Pink.

Such a delicate color.

I am not sure what fabric I am going to use.

I am going to go through my stash of vintage fabric in hopes of finding one that has the same color in it.

My daughter ok'd ruffles at the bottom edge.

I started painting my daughter's desk chair.

Ballet Slipper Pink.

Before the chair was painted.

Flowers from the grocery store.

Same kind of pink.

In the living room.

Peonies from the gardens.

Same.

In the dinning room.

Roses in my flower garden.

Same.

 

Peonies in the garden.

Same.

Flowers in the pots.

Same.

I think I have my theme color this summer. 

Pink.

With a side of blue.

Have you planted your pots?

What are your colors?

Summer Garden Plans

I am always thinking of what I can do next in my gardens.

Some I am able to follow through, others move to the next year plan or to the not gonna happen list.

Last year we were going to try to build a tree house.

I think I have given up on Mr. M. heading up this project.

So it is up to me and the kids.

We drew out the plans.

Picked the tree.

Lots of shade and surrounding trees for privacy.

It has great branches to work with.

We are thinking of at least two levels, one at the first v in the tree and a second one level at the second v.

I have to run the design by Mr. M. so he can tell me if it can be a reality or a pipe dream.

Then we can get the supplies.

I figure if we give ourselves the rest of May and all of June, that should be enough time to get it done.

Of course that would have to mean no distractions.

Like that is possible.

The next garden spot I am thinking of is in the back field.

I am thinking there is way TOO MUCH grass!

This picture is taken standing by the pool looking into the far back yard.  

Uncharted territory!

Mr. M., oh the poor man.

One day he gave away some of my rocks.

I think I may have told this story before so bare with me if so.

A small portion of MY ROCKS.

Anyway, he gave away some of the rocks I have been saving.

I just about killed the man, gently of course.

"Why on earth would you do that?"  I asked him.

"They were just sitting in the back yard, I didn't think you would mind since you have so many."

This is when I had to tell him, "look, I have future plans for my rocks."

"What plans?"

I had to ask, "are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Is it that bad?" He asked

"To you maybe.  I have many plans for our several acres of land.  Some for each year, some 5 year plans, some 10, and some for even longer."

Then he wanted to know what kinds of plans I had.

Seriously, I had to condense them because I might have given the man a heart attack.

I am a gardener.

If there is grass, we can find a better solution.

I have 6 acres to work with.

I have only just begun!

I will never forget about 12 years ago, one day my mom, Mr. M. and I were standing at the back french doors looking out into the yard.  

She very wisely said "you know there is a reason there are no plants at the back of the house.

 She has a plan."

How right she was, she knew!  She knew I was waiting for the right time.

In that very spot we were looking at, there is now a large deck and several flower gardens.

So now Mr. M. knows some of my plans.

He only rolls his eyes when I tell to walk with me so I can show him where I want to put the next garden.

I know he likes it, at least a little, because it gives him a chance to play with his tractor.

So, that brings us back to the future garden site.

He did ask, so what do you have planned for tomorrow?

Silly man.

This is the start of the next garden.

After I move my rock back into position.

Why is there one rock in the grass?

My boys.

They move them to look for toads.

Love, love, love toads.  

They are the cutest little things.

  Cuter than bunnies because they do not eat my plants.

I have threatened them with weeding if they move my pathway stepping stones any more.

I will start with at a boxwood bush or two.

At least one shrub rose bush and some of my favorite perennials, foxglove, peony, cat mint, to start with.

These rocks sit under some very old cherry and pear trees so there is shade but also plenty of sun.

I need to watch and find out exactly how much sun before I put any sun sensitive plants in.

That is my plan for today.

Tomorrow there is always another plan and if it is nice out, it will involve gardening too.

And you, do you have plans?

A Free Plant is NOT Always a GOOD Thing

Some of you may remember, last year Mr. brought me home a truck load of free plants.

He got them from a co-worker's yard he had done some yard work for.

As soon as he said the word free along with the words Peony and Day lily I said "of course!"

BIG MISTAKE!

Along with these free plants came a very  VERY invasive plant.

VERY

VERY

VERY

invasive plant!

Today I am planting here to make this area look better.

Mr. M. helped in his own non-gardener way.

Round up the BAD PLANT!

Yes it did seem to help, but it did manage to kill a few other plants as well.

I must say, with having more than a dozen huge dead spots in my flower gardens, 

I was about ready to till the whole gardens up and grass it over.

It was so depressing and I felt overwhelmed with it.

Where to start.

It took me almost a month before I would even go into my gardens.

I started with one spot and cleared it away.

OK

Not so bad.

Then I did another.

and

Another.

Until today.

I am almost finished with my spring planting and I have started to mulch and it just makes that ugliness go away.

I am happy.

My gardens are happy.

This spot now has a beautiful white shrub rose to grow and make this area look beautiful again.

Another white shrub rose, lavender, boxwood and some ground covers.

Thankfully I did not put this nasty plant in my new garden I planted last year.

This is an update on the fire pit garden I had put in last year.  

You can see where it started here.

The roses are so beautiful and so many of them.

They smell so good when you take a walk on the path.

This picture is the back of the fire pit garden.  

I am hoping the bushes will grow full and tall and block the driveway view.

This is how the garden looks from the fire pit.

I mulched it and finished the rock border.

I was even graced with foxgloves that grew from last years plants.

I love the purple, pink, green and white.

This is the front of the huge wild rose.

This HUGE rose bush is a wild white rose.

It only blooms once a year in spring.

I dug up some plantings about 5 years ago.

It makes a great climber and is so hardy.

They can be found on almost every ditch along the roads around here.

This is the pool garden.

My favorite shrub rose in a dark pink.

The arbor that leads to the pool.

Wild roses on each side. 

We are going to put lattice on each side of the arbor so I can train the roses to grow up and over each side.

This is what it looks like from my neighbor's side.

This huge maple is only 10 years old.

and

We did not plant it.

I grew from a seed all on it's own.

This is another maple from seed.

Most of the maple trees around our main yard have grown from seed all on their own.

We only move them if we have to and only after they have been given at least two years in the spot where they started growing.

Wild roses on the side arbor.

My cat mint is really starting to fill out.

I still have a lot of mulching to do.

Of course, I may find some new Summer plants that will just fit into my gardens.

There is always more room for a pretty plant.

JUST NOT THE BAD ONES!