Pops of Color and Flowerbed Maintenance

 We had such a wet Spring that the weeds really thrived. The before picture of my corner flowerbed is not accurate. It is prior to me being sick and the rain coming in for 2 weeks straight. The flowerbed was 10 times worse by the time I could tackle it. It took 5 days to complete in total, but the end result is awesome. I still have a few spots I could weed, but I will use the weedeater and put down some roundup instead. My back cannot take much more hard-core gardening right now.

I had to replant my wildflower seeds under the trees. Pepper got into the beds and dug everything up this past fall. I now have a tall fence up that she cannot get through. This is what it looked like last year. Pepper was able to squeeze through the decorative fence and ended up digging up all the gorgeous wildflowers. They should bloom by next month so I am not too upset. 

It took a lot of back-breaking work to get the bed cleared of all weeds and especially dandelions!! My hands are still cramping from pulling weeds for so many days straight. This was not the only bed that had to be cleaned up. All my front beds required it as well as around my greenhouse and back patio.

I added a little fairy circle flowerbed towards the front and then planted along the back fence some sunflower seeds. I cannot wait until everything is up and blooming!!

Speaking of blooming and pops of color, I am loving all the different varieties of petunias and dianthus I have planted in planters around the house. The top picture of the collage below is a wild rose bush that sprouted up along the back fence. It finally bloomed this year. It is in a precarious spot though. It is right behind the grill and smoker patio blocks. But so far it is still thriving.

For the corner spot in my front flowerbed, I added some of the cattle fencing we had left over and the rest of the white hanging planters as a cute corner attraction. The ivy was left over from a planter I had on the front porch last year. My creeping myrtle has gotten so large this year that was completely ignoring it the first part of the season!!

I also used some of the leftover cattle fencings as a brace for my tall dianthus. The smaller dianthus came back this year. I had them planted in this planter as a last-minute pop of color choice last season. I cannot believe they came back in this planter and the planter next to the garage.

We did a refresh to the rocks in the front flower beds. I did not get a picture of the peonies in bloom. But the wildflowers are coming back so strong each year. I actually need to thin them out a little. My plan this October is to plant a bunch of tulips in the front flower bed with my gladiolus. I will also plant some under the large front window. There is actually a small flower bed under it that is blocked by the peonies. I figured I will at least be able to enjoy them when I am on my front porch.

I am looking forward to my gladiolus this year. I moved the decorative fence from the corner bed to in front of my gladiolus bed as a bracing instead of using white stakes with string this year.

The sideyard gate entry was destroyed by Pepper when she would run back and forth watching the cowboys rodeo across the street. We have worked so hard to fill it in and make it level again. We had some old bricks from the front flowerbeds that were busted and miss shapen. We threw them down in the huge trench she had made and began slowly filling it with topsoil, sand, and pebbles. We now have a level entry with some of the sod we found on the interstate. I also made some corner flowerbeds to add some color and attract a few more pollinators. I love how it turned out. The barrels I ordered from Home Depot.  I did not realize how large they actually were until I got them in. Luckily, we had done a nice shopping haul at Lowe's and Home Depot the week prior and I had found a bunch of clearance items to fill them up with. I also have a couple of hydrangea plants planted in the corner next to the house along with a lantana plant. I am hoping this corner flowerbed becomes full of large hydrangea blooms!!

So that is a full update on my flower beds. I will try and get some pics of my pitiful vegetable planters and get an update posted this week as well. Now that majority of the hard work is done, I now can sit back and enjoy all our hard work!!