Planting Flower Gardens

The kids only have through half of next week before they're out of school. I still can't get over how close summer is.

The fireman and I have been busy working on our flower gardens. I know, the plan was to do the fence next, but we got ahold of a garden tiller and didn't want to lose the chance to use it for free. Also, part of my Mother's Day gifts were all these pretty flowers.

So, the above planter is one of our pretty porch plants. I just plant annuals in these. That way I can change it up and add some pretty splashes of color each year. Gives me something to mess with.

This is the other one, near the front door, and at the other end of the patio. They're pretty much the same, but I really love them. You can see I didn't take time to sweep the dirt off the patio.

It's still there, in fact. I'm lazy.

Here's the porch with the plants we've chosen for the front bed. So glad we completed the porch project, last year. We have a boulder that's going in on the far right, then a pink dianthus, lavendar, dianthus, tall blue salvia, dianthus, lavendar, dianthus, salvia, then this baby...

I don't really even know what it is, except I love it. The blossoms are orchid-like and such a pretty shade of lavendar. The leaves are furry and dark. I just love it.

The front bed will be purple/blue, pink, purple/blue, pink, on and on.

The fireman is currently putting timbers in to form the bed and then we're adding just a little good soil to mix it in and bring the level up a tad. Then the landscape fabric goes down to protect from weeds and we can get these babies in the ground. We're also topping with mulch. I can't wait to plant!

I have on the right side of the house, planted ferns and lily of the valley in front of that. I luckily stole both of these from my wonderful mother. We will mulch and timber border on that side as well. On the left side of the house, where it will be in front of the new fence and around the window wells, we are lining with timbers and planting hollyhocks, foxglove and lots of crazy wild flowers.

I don't really like messing with plants. I HATE weeding. So, I like the idea of letting an area fill with plants and I don't really have to touch it. The front will have more separate plants, but they'll have landscape fabric and mulch to protect from weeds. The other sides we'll fill with mulch to protect some until the plants fill it in. And these will all be perennials, to come back each year prettier and bigger than ever.

I also have my vegetable garden to plant this weekend!

The fireman and I have also been trying to plan some summer vacations. In a couple of weeks, the girl and I are flying to Georgia to see my sister for a few days, maybe visit the beach. Then, I'll drop her off with her dad there and fly home. It'll be fun to have a few days off with her before she's gone for 6 weeks at her dad's.

In July, the fireman and I are going back to Big Cedar , in Missouri, where we honeymooned. We are so looking forward to it.

We still want to do something with the kids, though. Maybe go to one of the beaches in the great lakes, as they are much closer than any of the coast's beaches. The kids would like to play on the beach, maybe rent a boat or wave runner. We've been kicking around a few ideas, but not decided anything yet.

Hopefully, I'll have updated pictures of the finished projects next week.

Then, we get to start on......*cue music* The Fence!!!

I can't wait! I can sit outside in my backyard and not have people see me.....I'm so weird.