Well it's been a long time since I posted over here! Like years! Have not been inspired to do anything outside for awhile I had a very sick hubby and he is still not out the woods. Any way I retired in December 2025 and now I have more time now to devote to the outside. I have a total mess from not paying any attention to the gardens I have a over grown jungle to sort out. I will post some pictures when I can, don't hold your breath!

Fall Is Coming

 Well I hate to say it but Fall is coming!  Some of the trees are just starting to change I know it's from the shorter days we are having now.  While I love the Fall I don't love what comes after!  The dreaded S word S N O W. There now I've said it!  I guess I will just have to go into hibernation mode when that happens and hopefully plan out what I'm going to do next Spring as far as landscaping goes.  The nice thing about Winter is at least there is football to watch!  

One thing I have decided is in my "Garage Bed" I'm going to be planting Creeping phlox for ground cover I think I'm going to go with pink and purple there and some ajuga on the deck side.  

pink phlox

Weeding

 

One of the jobs I hate is weeding and I have so much of it to do.   I recently decided to lay cardboard down with mulch on top of it it seems to work great however I have to weed before I do that.  It's been so hot here that I just can't be out very long. I am sure that it will take me until fall to get everything done.  I want to get some foundation plants this fall to plant in the back yard namely in front of my deck after we paint and get the lattice up on the deck. We still have at least another good 2 months of summer left before the leaves start to fly. 

Well Here We Are 2 Years Later!

 

Wow, have things changed! We have done some more landscaping around the house and around the garage. I'm not sure how to upload my pictures from my iPhone to my computer, but I'm sure I will figure it out!

My hosta bed in the front of the house is different I lost some hostas which is fine it gives me room to plant other things.  My new obsession is Tall Phlox!

Tall Phlox  Orange

I do not have this orange one, but will have it next year!  I have two kinds of purple Tall Phlox and a pink and white one.  I have so many plans for my yard. I need to make more money to support my garden habit!

I am just itching to get outside and plant everything I have bought!!!  The weather here in Iowa has been very rainy and cold.  Now that we are all locked up in our homes because of the Covid19 virus, I want to start planting now!  I know that can't happen until May but having all this time off I would love to put it to good use!  In the interim, I can always dream and blog!  Here is another Lily that I am going to plant it's called a Salmon Star Lily it is so pretty I can't wait to see it in the garden!

Salmon Star Lily

I already have a Stargazer Lily and a just a plain white lily I am looking to get every color lily possible I just love lilies!  Who doesn't? 

Where I have planted them, I have plenty of room for more. I add a new lily every year. I plant them in behind my hostas and they look great! I've got so much to do, and plenty of time right now, but that's not going to happen.  Too early to plant. 

Blackeyed Susans

One of my favorite flowers.... Black-eyed Susans, I think the first time I saw these flowers I fell in love!!  I always said that if I bought a house the first thing I would plant would be these!  They are so sunny, happy, and bright!

Black-eyed Susans

I got seeds to start for this plant, I hope they come up!  I know I can always go get a plant if they don't, either way, this flower will be a star in my garden this year!!!

Stella D' Oro

One of my most favorite flowers Stella D' Oro!  I've bought 3 of them to go out front!  I have a pretty big area to fill in front of my house I thought 3 of these would look great in that big square. I have two hostas that are planted and need to be relocated, not sure where I'm going to put them but I will find a place!

These flowers just scream Happy!  I love the fact that they are rebloomers, I'll have happy little flowers all the way from Spring to Fall!

I got a Clematis!

I did it, I went and got my purple Clematis!  It is called H.F. Young. I don't think it will bloom this year, but the second year it should, I will be so impatient waiting for the blooms!

H. F. Young Clematis

I know exactly where I'm going to put it! I just have to get a trellis for it.  I hear they are easy to train to a trellis.  It should be beautiful Can't wait!

I've been busy!

I know it's still technically "Winter" but Spring is right around the corner!  I can't wait because I have BIG plans for my yard!

I went to Walmart the other day and I found seeds that I'm going to try and sow indoors.  My first time ever!

I also purchased a daylily named Final Touch, actually, I got three of them and they are reblooming!  I'm so excited to plant these. I love the dark pink with the lime-colored throat.  More later......

Final Touch

Well, it's been a while since I've posted ( like a year) but we have been so busy with other things that I didn't get a chance to work on my yard.  As a matter of fact, my yard looked hideous this year!

I plan to remedy that this year.  We have to finish the posts that we put up this fall and I did decide to put up a railing as well. Everything costs money so I need to watch the pennies and choose the most important things to do.  I know I want to plant some Begonias this year not sure if I want to put them in a pot or if I will put them in the ground my only peeve is I hate to dig things up.  I am more of a perennial girl. There are so many things I want to do this Spring hope I can afford to do them all!!!

I know one place that is getting overhauled for sure is the back of my garage!  I want to plant Cat mint back there but my hubby has got to take the "tail" off the back of the garage before any of that happens. I for sure want to plant a couple of reblooming daylilies.  I also want to plant a hydrangea or two. I guess I will have to wait for Spring!

This is the tail that the garage has to lose so I can plant my Catmint there!

Fall Is Here

I can't believe that fall is here and winter is on its way.  Here in Iowa, it was a very soggy summer and it looks like it's going to be a soggy fall as well.  All of my beautiful impatiens all gone, it's so sad.  My hostas look awful and I didn't get the rock down on the one side of the house.  Oh well, better luck next year!

I did make a decision for next spring, I'm going to start some of my flowers inside and transplant them as plants.  It worked really well for Star Gazer lilies.  I pretty much have a blank slate so it will be fun to figure out what I want to plant and where I'm going to plant them!

Fall Is Coming

I do like Fall but it's kind of sad to see Summer go.  I know I've got lots to do over the winter planning where things are going to get planted and what to plan where etc.  I think I'm going to try seeds this year and grow them indoors and move them outside as plants.  This spring I planted my Stargazer Lilies indoors then moved them outside in May.  I have to say it worked out pretty well since the year before I planted some Lilies and they didn't ever come up but this year they did.  I love surprises like that in the garden!

My Blank Corner

I'm not really sure what I want to do with this blank corner.  The door in the picture is to our bedroom. I don't want to put anything too big there especially since the air conditioner is right there. I was thinking maybe a Hydrangea, I would have to keep it trimmed up.  I also thought about Daylilies. I am obsessed with daylilies and hydrangeas are there really any other kind of plants out there???  It's kind of nice to have a blank slate in most of my yard both back and front!  I have all of winter to decide what goes where.  For all the plans swirling in my head, I don't think I'll be able to afford to do everything right away.  That is a good thing I need to go slow and plan out each area so it's perfect.  I want to fence the backyard for sure, that won't happen until next year or the year after. We have four backyards and nobody knows where their property lines are including us!  I should have them come out just so I know what was ours because there is a huge tree and some other kind of bush/tree things by our shed (I hate our shed I want a new one!).  See why it's going to be expensive to landscape?? I also want to put a berm in that is kidney shape just to fill it with flowers that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds.  So much to do so little time and money!

Rocks That Change Color!

When I put down the river rock that I had gotten at Menard's the other day it looked like all brown rocks.  My brother came over and commented about the boring brown rocks that I had purchased.  He kind of hurt my feelings.....just a little bit.  I don't really care what other people including family thinks of me or the things I chose to buy.  Anyway....we had a torrential downpour last Friday and I noticed my boring brown rocks were no longer brown.....they magically changed to colored rocks!!!  I felt like an idiot I didn't realize that the river rock came that way!  One of the girls at work had done the same thing and was disappointed because she thought she was getting the colored rock as well!  So I guess it's not just me that didn't know that the rocks come dirty and you need to rinse them! Won't be making that mistake again! I am a happy camper with my colored rocks!

Landscaping In Front Of The Porch

I finally got the landscaping done in front of my porch. It was a mess, to begin with. It also took me forever to figure out how I was going to do it.  It's an odd place to landscape but I just keep working until I got the result I wanted I still have a ton to go I prefer to take it slow and just do a little at a time.  I apologize for not cleaning of the sidewalk before taking the picture.

I'm not really sure what I want to plant there but I know it will be a perennial of some kind.  I really like lots of color so I'm sure it will be easy to pick some really fantastic colored, never-ending blooming something!

I have so many projects and so little time and money!  The best I can do for now it show you what I want to do and where. We still have to rip the porch off and replace the columns, which we are going to beef up while we're at it. I want to install metal railing but that can get real pricey an since we have odd lengths. Hopefully, it will all come together!

Lillies Have Bloomed!

I was so excited, my lilies that I planted this year and last year finally bloomed!  I planted some lilies last year and they never came up I assumed that they died, I should have known better!  One of the lilies is white and it is stunning!  The others that bloomed were ones I planted this spring they were my Stargazers, I love Stargazers. I will be adding more lilies every year I don't like to plant a bunch of flowers and run myself out of room and crowd the plants.



I'm just adding a little bit each year. I hope to get my backyard fenced in the next year or two.  So many things I want to get done!  It just takes time and money, two things I don't have a great deal of!  We also have to replace most of the front porch. Whoever had this house before us didn't know a whole lot about flowers and how to care for them!
But we will get things just the way we like them.  I have some cool nooks and crannies around the yard to it will be fun to fill those areas with color!  I have already fallen in love with purple/blue hydrangeas and two spots picked out for them next year.  Landscaping can get costly, but good thing I'm somewhat frugal and have some patience.  Just have to add a little at a time.  Next year we are going to put in a raised bed vegetable garden in the backyard so that should prove interesting since I've never grown vegetables before! I have done some research on them and a couple of the girls at work have them I should be good if I run into anything I don't know how to do they can guide me!

My Impatients

I was talking about my Impatiences in the last post so I thought I would show some pictures of them.  I got an old flowery pot of my Aunt's and didn't really like the colors so I spray painted it black and boy does that look sharp! I tried to plant all shades of pink but I think some red ones snuck their way in either way I think it looks really pretty.


 I also have a hen pot that my boss gave me.  He and I are into chickens we have 26 of them in the back of our dental office for patients to watch as they get numb.  This ended up being a real hit with the patients!  They are always asking about the chickens it's kind of fun to be able to answer their questions. Anyway, I planted red Impatients in the hen pot and now they are spilling over the pot. That is one of the many things I love about Impatients!

Playing In The Dirt

We bought our house 2 years ago and just now are starting to landscape.  I needed to know what was planted here so I could plan what I wanted to do with the front of the house.  What was here were hostas!  I love hostas one of my favorite plants!  Anything perennial really works for me!

Our hostas in the front of the house are just perfect since our neighbor has a huge tree and it shades that side of the house.  They left a lot of room behind the hostas to plant other things.  I did plant Stargazer lilies this year and last year I planted a mix of colors of lilies, I do love my lilies!

Next year I think I will plant a Clematis, I love Jackmanii because it's a deep purple and that is my favorite color, it's also my hubby's favorite color as well.  I really like pinks and purples especially together.  Another favorite of mine is Impatients they are not perennial but I love them!