Saturday, June 30, 2012

How Does Your Garden Grow?

When I first purchased my home, I was thrilled that the house was on 1/3 of an acre.  I thought that was a good chunk of land considering we are living in a large city.  The fact that it backed up to a green belt made it that much better.  I really don't like having neighbors behind my house.  The downside (because there's always one, of course) is that the yard has a really bad slope.  I've been wanting to do something with it for a long time but have occupied my time with decorating the interior and fixing up the front yard.  I bought a fire pit for it a while back but can't decide on where to put it or what materials I want to use for the surround.

Here's what the yard looked like when I first bought the house:


Weeds, weeds, and oh look, more weeds.  Sodding this thing would be a nightmare to do on my own and really expensive if I hired out the project (we all know how cheap I am).

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that my mother in law came down for a visit.  She is a gardening genius!  She immediately decided that we should put in a butterfly garden.  I posted a picture of the half finished garden a few days ago.  Well, we finally finished it!  In any other yard it would look really big, but in my monstrous backyard, it looks tiny!


If you look VERY closely, you can see it way up against the privacy fence.  I told you it looks tiny in this enormous yard...and this picture was taken from about the halfway point...yikes.

Here are some close ups:


Recognize that blue bird bath?  It's the one I used to have in my front yard.  



We bought mushrooms, owls, and all kinds of cutesy garden decor half off at places like JoAnn's and Hobby Lobby. 




The bird house Eva painted got hung up from an overhanging branch of my neighbor's pomegranate tree and my Mexican pot wind chime thingy from El Paso got hung from the black pot holder that used to be in the front yard.  


The base got some petunias :)


I got a great deal on an avocado tree, and it was planted next to the deck.  


I also got a tiny lemon tree and a dwarf pomegranate tree.  They are now next to my tiny orange tree:


My two nosy little helpers like to come out and enjoy the view:  



I constantly have to yell at Chica to get her out of the butterfly garden, but this time she just hung out on the deck:


My MIL bought a purple rose bush for Nick, but we didn't wanna risk killing it by planting it in this heat, so it was potted and now is enjoying a spot on the deck.


The seeds we put in the planter boxes have really taken off since this picture was taken. We planted green beans, zucchini, squash, jalapenos, serrano peppers, tomatoes, dill, cilantro, etc.... I'll have to take a new one so you can see the veggie progress. 


I have a crazy obsession with bougainvillea and told my MIL I wanted to plant it all around my house.  She thought I was joking, I wasn't :)  Here is a look at all the colors I bought:

yellow


peachy-pink

white

purple

I already had two in this hot pink color:

They all got planted along this hog wire fence way in the back since they are vines and like to creep up trellises and such:


They look so tiny from the deck.  I hope they grow quickly and completely cover the hog wire.

My MIL told me that pumpkins, cantaloupe, and watermelon love rocky soil, so we planted those seeds along the fence line along with some sunflowers.  We also put in some Esperanza since it grows like crazy here:


We found great deals on Confederate Jasmine and planted 3 in the back, but I forgot to get pictures of those...oopsy.

Remember those huge rocks my MIL and I dug up?  Okay, mainly my MIL dug them up.  She used them as decor in the garden.  She is so clever:


Here are some close ups of what we have growing in there. Lets see if I can remember all the names:

Pink Knockout Roses?

echinacea

White butterfly bush

I can't remember the name of this one, sorry!

firebush?

We also have hot pink hibiscus, a butterfly vine, blue plumbago, and a whole bunch of others.  


With all the attention the backyard was getting, the front yard was feeling neglected.  During a Hobby Lobby trip, I found this bike on clearance and thought it was absolutely darling.  


My MIL thought some Creeping Jenny, Petunias, Caladiums, etc... would look good in the baskets (which we lined with coconut liner.)  One morning I woke up, and she already had them done!




She is amazing, isn't she?  She taught me so much while she was here.  I already loved gardening, but always stuck to plants I knew how to grow.  She opened my eyes to a whole mess of new flowers.  This is a small look at all the stuff we bought and planted.  This post is long enough so I'll cut myself off here. Do you love to tinker around in gardens?  What are your favorite flowers?  As you can tell, I love bougainvillea and hibiscus flowers. If my MIL hadn't come down, I probably would have planted just those types all over the place :)  So now you see how my garden grows.  What's in yours?





3 comments:

  1. Awwwww.....Chica looks so adorable....and thin! I thought the camera ADDS pounds to the frame, not subtract it! Lol! No more bacon handouts from gramma Jamie and look what happens!

    I hope you guys are having a wonderful time in Alaska. Love and hugs.

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  2. Replies
    1. Hi Jamie! Everything is blooming now that Fall is here...even the gardenias up front. I put up recent garden pictures in my Fall Parts 1 & 2 posts :)

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