Gardening Wins!!

 Since I began my journey this season by really working on gardening, I have had some failures and some wins. A few fails were not producing any vegetables at the time frame I thought I would. Let's face it, I only have a handful of cherry tomatoes that might truly produce this season. I lost spinach, lettuce, okra, cucumbers, dill, chives, and eggplants. 

My goal this season was to make the backyard a little oasis that we could enjoy. I think we have succeeded. I sit out on the back patio and in the corner garden nearly every morning. We did have some type of animal die under our shed and sitting outside in the evenings is difficult until the smell completely dissipates. But other than that, we have enjoyed our backyard all season.

Many of the flowers that I thought would not survive have and not only survived but are thriving. I am loving how the grass has come back in our backyard. Last year the landlord had completely devastated the backyard with repairs to the septic and then trenching electricity to his garage in the back. We had a rock and dirt backyard last year. We have worked so hard to finally have some green grass. It isn't perfect but at least it is grass.

This whole area was nothing but dirt and rocks
last summer. Although it is nowhere how it should
be at this point from the time we began renting
this old homestead, if nothing else is destroyed
it will be so lush next summer.

I am still loving the fence we built during our Covid illness. I am very surprised it is still standing considering how horrible Keith and I really felt. I got in my galvanized raised beds and cannot wait until next season when I will fill them with sunflowers and vegetable plants!!

Another big win I feel, is when I removed all the plants struggling in the hanging containers on the arch and added them to the rock patio flower bed. They have thrived and doubled if not tripled in size. I am really shocked that the pansies are still so beautiful this late in August!!

My cilantro is out of control along with the parsley. But the green textures in this flower bed are amazing. 

The wildflowers I planted in the small flower bed between the greenhouse and patio have just exploded. The yellow coneflowers are blooming and just add so much dimension to this sweet little spot.

The wild marigolds are so vibrant and full in front of the shed!! One side is larger and fuller than the other one because it receives a lot more sunlight. Next season I will have to figure out something different. Maybe planters flanking the doors as long as the dogs do not mess with them.

Next week I will try and update on the back corner garden. I did some weeding and removing of some rocks. I think I might have killed a couple of lantana plants due to moving them in the heat of the day. I am working hard on bringing them back. It was a dumb rookie mistake especially when one was blooming the brightest and sweetest blooms.

Lessons learned for sure!! But the back corner garden is coming along nicely. I do have some sunflowers blooming in that area. They are nowhere as tall as the ones in the sideyard, but they are still full of buds. I plan on planting some daffodil bulbs among the irises this weekend. I think the two plants intermingling will be so beautiful this spring. Plus the texture of their foliage will add to the cottage garden vibe. I think it is also time for me to plant the yarrow and cone flowers that are in pots in the front garden beds. Water just pours straight through the pots that the yarrow is in. 

My goal these next few weeks is to get all the flower beds clear of any weeds. I will need to spread roundup all over the grass and weeds in the front corner garden bed and begin structuring out the layout for it. Some grass is growing back up in the existing flower bed. So some front yard maintenance this weekend. It is hard to work on those beds sometimes because they are in full sun all day. I think the tree might shade that area for a very short time in the morning.  But I will just dawn my sun hat and get to it this weekend. I have such high hopes for the front yard next year.

Enjoying the Flowers!!

 Not many pictures were taken this weekend of the gardens. I cleaned up the front flower bed around the gladiolus and planted what tulip bulbs I had on hand in that area. My gladiolus is thinning out this year. I think this Spring I will need to add some fresh bulbs. I have a lot of small plants growing from the original one, but they are not producing flowers. I think adding at least one bag of bulbs will give it a good refresh.

I am still loving the small beds around the back patio. They are just so whimsical and magical with the sweet alyssum and showy baby's breath. I also just love how the violas peak through all the white and green.

This was early morning and the violas were still sleeping!!

I am just loving this little plant that packs a punch!!

I am looking forward to when these marigolds bloom!!

Another plant that is giving me joy each day is the succulents I planted in the white hanging planters for the arch. They have grown so well!! I do fear that they are receiving too much water from all the rain we have received these past couple of weeks.

Other than watering and maintaining the gardens, not much has gone on. I have been figuring out layouts for the beds for next year. I did get a couple of galvanized raised beds. Keith put them together this weekend. I have to figure out the best and cheapest ways to fill them. I think I will do the no-dig method of filling the bottom with trimmed limbs and then laying cardboard over that. We shall see how it goes. We need to trim the front yard tree that is right by the drive. It has a lot of hanging limbs that need to be cut back. They will definitely fill up the beds. I just have to be mindful not to plant any perennials in the raised beds because the soil level will change when the bottom decomposes.

Speaking of decomposing, Darren and Stacey have either uncovered something dead on their property or had some very stinky compost dropped off behind our place. I cannot even sit outside without wanting to puke from the putrid smell. I will be discussing with her the horrible smell this week!!

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!!