Flowers

Let me begin with an excuse for my absence.  There is no other way to explain except to tell you that sometimes, you have to choose between living life or blogging about living life.

But I'm here now, and I have a lot to share with you!

I really love flowers. I've always wanted to put time into improving our landscaping around the house, but my thumb is far from green.  Plus, if you are starting from scratch, it's expensive to do a lot of it. 

For my bridal shower, my little sister gave me this beautiful garden tool set.



I have been chomping at the bit to get these babies dirty! She also gave me a pair of gardening gloves, a bucket to store everything in, and a knee pad that I would have never thought of myself, but it has so saved my knees from many pains since I started digging.

Since our garage sits back behind our home, we tend to use the back door to come and go. The front is only used by visitors who haven't been yelled at to go to the back yet. (I'm only yelling because the dogs are barking, not because I'm mean... usually).

The front stoop has this little brick bed and I've been thinking about putting flowers there for many years now. But since I never see it, I always forget.  Well, I didn't forget this year.

Here is what it looked like after years of my neglect and ignorance

I can't even tell you what it is that was growing in there. I can tell you that I didn't put it there.

This poor front stoop has just not been given much attention. I'm working on fixing that finally. I grabbed some pretty pink perennials and nutrient filled dirt and got to work.

Please excuse all of the weeds and debris that are scattered everywhere. Jeez, and that puppy welcome mat has seen better days huh... Work in progress I said!

If I've learned anything from my past gardening failures, it's that you need to pay attention to the sun/shade requirements of the plants you are putting in the ground. I choose these particular flowers for two reasons: First, because they do not need to be replanted every year, I will get at least one more summer out of them. And secondly, because they met the sun requirements of the spot that I needed them for.

I did not get any in between shots because there was a swift, embarrassing battle with a nest of spiders that I would prefer not to relive. I might have screamed just once... 

So here is the end result.

I made sure to leave them some room to expand should they feel the need. Less is more and it gives it a 'groomed' appearance.