Spring Cleaning

This weekend I decided to begin the arduous task of preparing my yard for spring. That may sound kind of silly... but for me that entails things like weedwacking the patio, blowing the leaves from the lower forty into the leaf beds, getting my overflowing urn ready to turn on, etc.

I started my Saturday morning at my beloved Grower's Outlet. I initially had the idea that I would replace 10 or so dead Pittosporums (Japanese Mock Orange). The Grower's Outlet only had the variegated version, or the compact version. I decided to buy two of the compact varietal and see what happened. I also, of course, managed to buy a few other plants: a new painted fern (only to get home and realize mine was still alive and coming back), a tobacco plant (no joke... and it has beautiful flowers!), a new Encore Azalea, and a few others.

After the Grower's Outlet I swung by a family nursery that was on the way home. I heard that they sold lime trees, so I stopped by to see. They do, and a whole bunch of other fun, random plants. I think Navel Orange trees are the most fragrant plants I have ever come across. I have decided that a lime tree, and an avocado tree will be my next big yard splurges... more about that later.

After leaving the nursery empty handed, I dropped by Lowes to look for a new electric weedwacker. My mother had found the highest rated one on Consumer Reports for me, and so I was on a mission to find it. No luck at Lowes... so I snagged some garden magazines, some ground cover plants to use around my bird house, and a new 100 ft extension cord. I loaded up the car, and headed to Total Power, a local lawn mower store. Total Power was a huge success. I walked in, asked the owner if they had a Stihl FSE 60 in stock, handed him my credit card and was on my way! He told me that the reason I couldn't find Stihl products at Lowes or Home Depot was because they were a family owned company, and they only liked to do business with other locally owned stores. He also offered to teach me how to rethread my weedwacker when I ran out of thread. Pretty awesome store.

By the time I got home it was 11:30. I had spent the whole morning out shopping! It was time to get to work. Before:

The birdhouse

The lower 40

The patio

The loot

And after 4 hours of weedwacking, mowing and blowing... the after:



It felt so good to work in the yard for a whole day! No baby fescue yet, but my seeds are coming along very well!



More plants! (and a rotten bench)

Another journey to the Grower's Outlet has lead to some fabulous new color in my yard. I planted impatiens along my wooden fence, foxglove behind my day lilies near the rotten stump, a butterfly bush near my bird bath (where a little bird was recently spotted bathing!) and some more blue star and hostas. I also went to Garden Ridge with a friend and picked up some super cute solar powered hanging lanterns. Everything seems to be doing really well -  it has all been in the ground for a little more than a week.

In the bottom picture you can see my rotten bench and my flying pig. I bought the pig at a local art festival, and the bench actually came with the house. It has been leaning against a fence in my yard collecting moss for some time now, so I am glad I finally found a home for it. In front of the pig is a "Cape Cod honeysuckle". I have read many posts online where people talk about how it isn't really a honeysuckle, and how the plant itself is not even hardy enough to survive in Cape Cod. The irony is, I planted it about 5 years ago and after it "died" I have been treating it as if it were a weed. I finally realized it was my honeysuckle after a trip to Disney World, where they have it growing in front of the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

Here is my little bird that I caught playing in my bird bath. Behind it you can see a hydrangea (that was here when I moved in) about to bloom.

Second Raised Bed!

I had some fun last weekend as you can see! I took another trip to the Grower's Outlet and got some pretty flowering plants for accent color, and stopped by Lowe's for some vegetables. This is raised bed number 2. It has sweet potatoes, asparagus, okra and a cucumber plant. Here is a shot of both beds:

I am not sure what the blue flowering plant is, it was just so pretty and full of color I thought it would add to the "green" of the beds. I also got a few impatients, a gerber daisy and some mexican heather to put in other pots around the yard. So far everything seems to be doing well! 

Weeding for your Soul

I have spent the past week weeding my patio. I know that sounds a little bizarre, but years ago, during college and before full time work, I had the brilliant idea of planting a patio of bricks and grass. I It worked out great when I was dating a landscaper... but I alone was unable to maintain the space. So, now I am trying to find a ground cover that will thrive, and keep out the weeds! Here is what it originally looked like:

So now, imagine how that looked after 4 years of letting it go after a drought. Yeah, it is really a sobering thought to look at how beautiful it once was. Oh well, life happens. When you can't water, what's a girl to do?

So now I am on a mission to re claim my yard. Starting with the upper half (my dad refers to the area below the retaining walls as the lower 40... so I guess we can call the top half the upper 20?)

My first task was getting the weeds pulled, adding some dirt to level out the space between the pavers, and planting a ground cover. I purchased 34 blue star creepers at the Grower's Outlet last week, and have them in the ground now. The last time I tried to do this, I split the creeper up, so every "intersection" of dirt had a plant. Unfortunately I planted in October, and we had a hard winter, and plenty of leaves that I neglected to blow. Now I am planting in the Spring... and have no leaves to fear for a few months.

Hope it works!

Selecting the Plants, and the Dirt!

Today my mother and I took a trip out to the Growers Outlet in Snellville. The GO is one of my favorite places to buy plants. They are always healthy, priced very low, and seem to be very well aclimated to GA's soil and weather conditions. I ended up getting some herbs (cilantro, basil, oregano, rosemary, lavender), two tomato plants (roma and beefsteak) and two bell peper plants. Everything cost about $15.

The soil is a little different story! I have been searching the internet for months trying to find the "perfect" soil mix for a raised bed. I haven't found anything! (and of course I bought the plants before I bothered getting dirt!) After speeking with a very helpful gentleman at Home Depot, I ended up buying a bag of Nature's Helper, a bag of Mushroom Compost, 3 bags of topsoil and a bag of Miracle Grow Moisture Control Garden Soil (what can I say- I am a sucker for advertising and they have had some good ads!).

I got everything home and was ready to plant until I realized we were under a tornado watch. So my husband, mother and I quickly unloaded the car, and called it a night.