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Monday, June 30, 2014

Flower Beds . . . 30 June 2014 . . . Loaded with Photos

The husband and I have been busy.
Well, let's be honest . . . 
he has been working hard.
I have been the Chief to his Indian.
He has worked SO HARD . . .
I'll admit, I have done some things
but most of the beauty you see 
comes from his hard work.


Front bed.
Last year, where the mound is,
there was a Butterfly Bush
which was lost when we has a problem
with our plumbing from house to sewer.
Husband said
"No more plants with deep roots."
So we built a mound.
We found the angel at Michael's,
a US hobby/craft store,
and surrounded it with snapdragons
and surrounded the snap dragons with marigolds.



Down the shady side of the house
we are on our third,
or is it fourth, year of Hostas.

They have gotten so big and LOVE the shade
and little bit of sun they receive
in the late afternoon.


In the back corner, by the steps,
we had a tall, gangly pink rose bush.
The flowers were large
and smelled like a "powder room."

It was WAY too tall
and leggy for this spot in the garden
so the husband dug it out
for a transplant  into the back yard 
where it can grow to its hearts content.


I wanted to grow blue Morning Glories
where the rose bush had been by the steps.
So we put the trellis back
and the Husband had the GREAT idea
to add an outside pole lamp
we brought with us from Indiana.
This way the Morning Glories 
could climb up the trellis and the light.



The Morning Glories never sprouted,
even though they had sprouted 
in the water I soaked them in.
So when we were home, in Indiana,
we bought  Sweet Pea and a Hyacinth Bean plants.
Both will vine up the trellis
so we will  have white Sweet Peas
and purple and white Hyacinth Bean flowers
twining up in that area.

We found our FAVORITE geraniums
at Save-A-Lot.
This year they didn't have red
so we bought two that they call
"Patriotic Orange."
It is almost a red so we bought them.



On the driveway side of the house
I have my Christmas Cactus hanging.
Under the mailbox
you can just see the top of the one red geranium
we found at Save-A-Lot.

The cactus is sending out a lot of new growth.
I hope it blooms as well as it it growing
this winter.


Now a trip through our backyard
with Miss Indy.
This bed,
by the fence,
was full of Day Lillies
from the garage
to where the white rabbit is.

They got dug up,
some were transplanted
and some went to Indiana
for my nieces and nephews to plant.

If you look behind Indy's legs
you can see the husband's bean plants starting to grow.

You can't see much else, 
but there is an English Lavender plant
by the fence pole behind Indy
and a couple of Coral Bells that are hidden.


The purple/pinkish plant on the far left
is a Mondara/Bee Balm/Hummingbird plant.
They are normally red
but this is the only one we could find this year.

The Lillies I left in are blooming.
These are from an Easter Lilly plant
that was given to the husband's mother one Easter.
It has grown here ever since.

If,and when, we move back to Indiana,
this plant is going to be transplanted with us.
Hope it will bloom there as great as it does here.


This area had a HUGE,BUSHY
pink colored old fashioned rose in it.
We had one of them in Indiana 
that we transplanted two or three times and it survived.

So the husband dug it up
and you will see where it ended up.

The two plants that are there now 
were where the trellis and light are located
in the front flower bed.
When the husband dug up the rose bush
in the front bed
we discovered there were  now two
where one had been planted.

The one on the left,
I think,
is dead.
But the one of the right 
has some growth.


Here are the Day Lillies I transplanted
from the fence where Indy was standing.

Can you believe I have this many
and I took four trash bags full back to Indiana. 

If you look close in the corner,
by the house and fence,
you will see a rose bush. 
This is the one we transplanted 
from the other side of the yard.

There is some growth at the bottom,
and up the main branch
are some leaves trying to grown.

The rose on the right is called
"Joseph's Coat.

It is blooming
but, next year,
when it has settled in,
this is what it will look like.
We had one of these in Indiana too.
We found this when we were home,
probably in the same store 
where we found the one we had
when we lived there.


You may have noticed
that all of the beds have black mulch on them.
The husband and I worked as a team
to do this.

He worked SO HARD 
in digging up the beds,
they were full of weeds.
Wonder why,
we hadn't weeded them since 2012.
This lets me know the exercise is helping us . . . 
we both feel good 
working in the flower beds this summer.

The rose in this photo blooms yellow 
and smells divine.
We picked it up with Joseph's Coat
when we were in Indiana.



These Hostas had been one plant
that was in the bed where the Day Lillies are now.
When I dug it up
I was going to plant it by the tree
in the back yard.
Then I though
"Why not plant it in front of the patio
since nothing else grows there."

This plant had grown under the exhaust
from the clothes dryer in the basement.
Hope it likes the move.


Here is our shade tree . . .
a Flowering Plum.
It was only supposed to get
about 15 feet high.
It is now as tall as out 1 1/2 story house.
It must like this spot 
to grow twice as tall as t should have.

It makes GREAT shade,
which makes it hard to find plants for the yard.

You can see what we ended up with . . . 
more Hostas.

The small ones came from the Day Lily bed


The yard is lacking grass.
The weeds had taken over,
and Indy uses it as her "restroom."

So we killed all the weeds off.
Later in the summer
we are going to till up the entire back yard
and plant new grass.

Indy is pretty good 
about keeping out of areas 
where we have grass growing.
Hope she learns to cross the patio,
instead of the yard,
to  get to the "restroom."


I love my shady back yard.
It looks kind of rough this year,
but by next summer
it should be attractive again.

2 comments:

  1. Your flowers are gorgeous. And the Jacob's rose - it will be beautiful. Lots of work!

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  2. Congratulations, your gardens look great, I too love shade loving Hostas, yours are huge, watch out for the slugs, they love them. Gardens are hard work, so I hope you have planned a few rest days for both of you. Best of all sit in your garden and enjoy the view.

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