Project Garden Makeover!

Before it gets much closer to winter, I'd better post these pictures of my front garden!  Considering the day is cool and wet and dreary, it's nice to remember the absolutely gorgeous weather here!

I can't really explain why this was so high on our priority list, but both John and I agreed that we wanted to plant the flower bed in the front.  Maybe we wanted to make the house look ours; or maybe we were just taking advantage of the rare lovely weather.  It's only nice here maybe 5 weeks out of the year - we need to spend all the time outside that we can when it's nice!

Here are some BEFORE pictures:

Confession - this is after I dug everything up.  I'd forgotten to get a true
BEFORE picture.  It didn't look much better, though.

Yay, front of my house!

John and I spent about 2 hours in Lowes, wandering around the gardening section.  Neither one of us had any experience doing this, so we were reading all the plant labels, and finally tracked someone down to talk to us.  This is what we ended up buying:

Mums!  Honestly, not our first choice, but we liked the colors, and they
were on sale. 

Apparently these are called "Dusty Miller"  We thought they looked cool -
especially next to the colors of the mums.

We also bought a honeysuckle climbing vine - but I guess I didn't take a picture of it.

Next:  THE PROCESS!

I broke up the dirt, and John decided that all the bricks surrounding the bed needed to be raised.  So, we re-sized the bed, and raised each of the bricks by a few inches.  While John was doing that, I was pulling all the weeds out of the bed.  I may have gotten a bit carried away with it (John says I'm too much of a perfectionist), but the end result looked nice, I think!

Totally ready for planting!

John was so right about raising the stones.  It looks so much better!

And so, we began planting - by far the most fun part of the afternoon (and the quickest)!

John's parents had given us a large box of bulbs (both orchid and lily), so we planted those along the back of the bed, close to the house.  We then placed a medium sized trellis to the right of the window, and planted the honeysuckle vine so that it would climb the trellis.  (That is a total experiment on our part.  If it grows out of control, or attracts bees or something, we'll tear it out.  We don't want to deal with bees that close to the front door.)

Next, we placed a few rows of the Dusty Miller, and planted the mums in the very front.

Ready to see?

Doesn't it look nice?  The Dusty Miller is supposed to grow taller than the
Mums, which is why they're toward the back.  You can't see the bulbs.

Yay!  Project, successful!

All in all, this project took us about 4.5 hours (including the time in the store), and cost us about $80-$100 (we had to buy all the tools, and the soil).  We're hoping that they last through the winter, and we can enjoy them this spring.  We're not expecting anything to grow this summer.  100+degrees does not equal a good garden!

Waiting Waiting Waiting

I've spent all day today calling people and emailing people trying to get them to get back with me so that I can get some work done!

Now I'm having to stay late because someone never got back with me - and they're on their way over here now.  I'm just marking time until they get here and I can go home.

It's more than a little frustrating when your (large) projects get stuck in limbo because people aren't doing what they're supposed to do.

Okay, vent over.

John is studying, waiting for me to get off work.  Then we're going to go eat (depending on when we get out of here I'll either go home and cook or just pick something up) and then take Honey for a nice walk.  It's gorgeous outside!  And considering there are less than 6 weeks a year with beautiful weather here, we must take advantage of it!

After that we'll have a quiet evening of studying and crocheting.  I'm working on a queen/king sized blanket.  I'm hoping to complete it in time for my brother's wedding to give it to them as a wedding gift.  They're not even engaged yet, so I still have time!  I've only been working on it for, oh, five years now?

I am so tired of working on the thing!  I'll be glad to give it away.

It really is beautiful (before you start thinking that I'm giving something horrible to my brother and (future) sister-in-law)!  Various shades of blue in a variety of stitches that I may or may not have made up myself. 

Since it's so large, each row takes me anywhere from 25-75 minutes to complete depending on the stitch.  Thankfully, I've finished the most time consuming stitches, so now I'm down to about 25-35 minutes per row.  Still ... that's a lot of rows and a lot of time!

But I'm determined that I'm going to finish this blanket before I start any other projects.  Period.  Done.