Flower Beds Finished!

I never thought that our front porch project, that we started last year, would take so long to totally finish....

The fireman had built these flower beds with timber a week or more ago and we've been picking out plants, digging up dirt, adding soil, laying landscape fabric, planting plants and mulching....

Here's where we have the plants lined up where they should go. I like the boulder at the beginning of the bed. Look at that mess!
Well, the fireman did most of this. I did some planting....


Plus, I got our vegetable garden in.

We were going to add 2 more beds this year, but were so busy with the flower beds that this got put on the back burner until next year, or later this year in preparation. I'm thinking we'll mulch between the beds like The Pioneer Woman so we don't have to mow between them. Connect them all with the lanscape timber we used and then fill with mulch.

Our tomatoes came back! We had 30 or so volunteer tomato plants because of the mild winter. I moved some of them and gave away some of them. Sadly, I had to toss a large number of them. Many of them already have flowers! To the midwest, that is amazing at this time of the year.

I added bell peppers to the Tomato Bed. It's entirely filled with tomatoes, so that's it's name now. We're going to be swimming in tomatoes...

The other bed has zucchini, cucumbers, crook-neck squash, celery, and I planted seeds of icicle radishes *my fireman's favorite* and turnips.  I know this is way more than should go in this bed, but I can't hold myself back when it comes to vegetable gardens. I planted the larger hilled veggies in the corners with hopes to let it hang over the bed and give me more garden space. We also planted that little green pot with peanuts! I've never tried those before.

Anyway, back to the flower beds.

This is the left side of the house, with the three window wells that we dug out and installed 3 years ago, when we got married. I have planted hollyhocks, foxglove and these mexican primrise that grow here wild. I also seeded the entire area with wild flowers and additional hollyhocks/foxglove. In a year or so this area should be teeming with wildflowers! I can't wait! We won't mulch here, we'll let the seeds spread in this area and take off.

We will be replacing the plywood with plexiglass covers with hinges to open, but also keep snow *and critters* out of the window wells. Hopefully this summer/fall.

This bed meets up with the front bed by the Burning Bush at the corner.

The fireman separated the two beds with a timber, straight down the front of the house and mulched the front bed only.

There are two hydrangeas in front of our bedroom window and a bleeding heart and coral bell in front of that, with that second boulder in between.

I like it very much.

On the right side of the house is a separate bed. I have transplanted ferns and lily of the valley from my mom's house to this bed. It's very shady and they will hopefully fill this area up. The ferns are across the back and the lily of the valley across the middle/front. Since they spread like crazy, I'll give it a few years to fill up, but it should be nice. The fireman mulched here as well, as it shouldn't hinder the plants spreading.

Here's a weird picture where we got the plants in, but not mulched yet.

 And here, all done and with solar lights in the front porch section of the bed.

Sorry it's so shady, but it really does look nice! I'm glad we have this area done. I'm also glad that they're all perennials and I don't have to worry about them, like almost ever....

I like to mess with a vegetable garden each year, but the adding and pruning and weeding work doesn't appeal to me.

The lights offer a soft glow at night. I tried to take a picture for you last night, but they don't light up until it's nearly full dark and too dark to take a photo by.

So, that's it for the garden.

As far as projects go, the fence is next.

I am also going to be starting on the moon painting on our dining room wall, perpendicular to the tree mural.

Do you guys have any large gardening plans this year?

Stay tuned for tomorrow.  I have a small surprise for you...