My Garden - Part 3 (2012)

The conclusion of my three parter on my garden.  I feel like this three parter has been a little weak because I've been tired and just putting a lot of pictures in, BUT the best way to explain how my garden looks is with pictures :)

The spring of 2010 we put in a brick walkway from the front stoop to the end of the driveway.  At the front stoop, there was some 'dead space' which we decided to put a flower box instead of ripping up the asphalt and laying bricks.  This spring (the May long weekend to be exact), John finally made me that flower box.  I love it!  It looks exactly like something my Poppy would have made.  Right down to the way we painted it (we used left over paint from our basement and just slopped it on :) )

Left and below, you can see the wonderful box and John hard at work putting the soil in and evening it out.  It took something like 3 bags of soil.

Here it is all filled in on the right.  I planted 4 bleeding hearts (one in each corner), a fucshia in the middle and then some annuals in between.

Next, we decided to tackle under the tree in the front.  I began this project last summer as it had these ugly garden rocks and very pathetic hostas underneath.  So last summer I cleaned up all the rocks and put mulch down to just cover the dirt.  This summer we put new soil down and planted spotted dead nettle, two different varieties: pink pewter and anne greenway (which in my head I always saw Anne of Green Gables :D).

New soil, plants all ready to go in the ground!

After the tree, we tackled the lovely weigela bush.  I was tired of the stones around it that kept sinking into the ground.  So we placed some of the leftover bricks from the walkway around it, which just made it look so much nicer!

 This year we did not do any cucumbers (YES!), but instead I did herbs.  Below is a picture of them after they were planted.  I forgot to take pictures of them as they grew.  I will try to get some over the next couple weeks because those bad boys grew like crazy!  Got me a whole pile of dill and chives for the winter.

 Below is the backyard garden after everything is first planted.  I didn't have to plant much this year, as the dianthus I planted last year returned this year!  Beginning in March!  And I thought that it was an annual...

Here is a progression of my flowers over the summer.  The pictures below were taken in mid-July.

The pictures below were taken in late August.

These have spread even more now)

Look how lovely it's filled in.  We had to trim the lower branches
back, as they were getting in the way of mowing the lawn. 

 

The rose bush has outdone itself this year.  It's the highest it's ever been!

I added a little something for fall.  I had to have my fall mum, they are so beautiful!

My Garden - Part 2 (2011)

Yesterday I began what will be a three part series on my gardens.  I have really enjoyed having a garden of my own, as it was something I always dreamed about when I was younger, following my mom around while she was planting her flowers and helping to water the plants with my little one cup watering can.  Let's look at my garden from 2011.

 Starting off in 2011, I decided that I was going to go with the "less is more concept".  The flowers in 2010 got really big and out of control, so I thought that if I put fewer flowers, it would look less like a big mess of flowers and more like a lovely garden.  Here are a few pictures of it after everything is first planted in the spring.

 The picture on the right is of a beautiful iris which did not bloom in 2010, meaning I did not know it was even there.  I didn't know what it was until I took a picture and got my mom to tell me what it is.  Isn't it pretty?

 The flower on the left is called 'Nicotiana'.  I bought it because it had some different colours, including a green flower, and had a different shape, more of a star shape.  I later found out that it can product tobacco.

                                     Here are two pictures of my rose bush taken within a week of each other.

We grew some carrots and cucumbers again in 2011, apparently neither of us hadn't had enough of cucumbers.  Or at least John hadn't has he planted a whole package again...

This summer I decided to put mulch down in my garden.  I don't remember my mom ever using it, so I never really thought about using it, but my sister-in-law made a good case for it and I turned out to really like it, although it doesn't seem to cut down on the weeds as much as I would like. Here are some pictures of it mulched with the cute lady bugs my sister made me as a bridal shower gift.

Here my garden is later on in the summer.  It flourished quite well and filled in very nicely.

Here the garden is near the end of the summer.  Note the rose bush climbing its way up the fence and cucumber plant taking over the backyard...

That's it for 2011.  Sorry to the lack of words, I'm too tired to think of anything exciting, so I'm letting the pictures do the talking.

Tomorrow - 2012!

My Garden - Part 1 (2010)

I have been really working at my gardens for the last few years since we moved here.  The first summer (2010), my mom helped me change the gardens in the backyard, from two small gardens to one large garden. See here...

I don't have any before pictures, but in the picture on the right, you can see that one garden was in the left hand corner, where the majority of the plants are.  In the photo below, the other small garden was against the fence just behind the clothes umbrella.  This small garden I decided I wanted to get rid of because I felt it was a pointless spot and would rather have a garden that ran along the fence, so I could see it (the other one was blocked by the hot tub).

You will see above the massive amount of hostas.  The woman who lived here before must not have been a gardener because she had hostas everywhere.  There were some coming up in the small garden.  Mom and I thought that we had got them all, but like a week later, I found more growing...I had about 8 or 10 to begin with...let's just say there are way less than that.

We ended up using the existing stones to border the garden, but found our we were too short, so we ended up getting the same type in a different colour and alternating them along the the garden.



We also fixed up a plant in the front, called a weigela, which was not looking so great, but this a little TLC it turned into this...

As the summer progressed, my garden really blossomed due to some wonderful fertilizer and great weather. Note the size of my rose bush, a graduation gift from my Nanny.

Middle of the summer, the flowers loved the fertilizer

As did the cucumbers...although I think it was
planting a whole package of
cucumber seeds that really did that one

Late summer/early fall - The rose bush made it over the fence!

Part 2 - 2011 summer gardens tomorrow...