ImPOSStor

Last year I attempted to grow a vegetable garden. It was an epic failure, due to a bad location, lack of care (by me) and the rampages of the wildlife in our area. Whenever anything would get even close to bearing fruit, little (and big!) rodents would find them and enjoy a late night snack. I'm thinking that this guy, who showed up in my yard today, (in broad daylight!) was partially responsible. :-)





This dude was FAT! When he finally decided he was scared of me, he began to waddle towards the back of the garage. You really can't call it running, or scampering, or anything remotely fast. ;-)



He came back just a few minutes later and checked out the driveway. I'm thinking he was scoping out future meals. Sorry buddy! No veggies this year! :-)
And by the way, as soft and cute as he may look in these pictures, don't be fooled. This dude was UG-LY. Long, ugly nose, fat rolls, skinny tail. :-)

Inspiration Tuesday: Unfussy Gardens

My grass is getting greener by the second as this rain keeps coming down. I've also started a few seeds, but my black eyed susans have once again refused to grow (as they did last year) Looks like I'll be either buying a bunch at the nurseries, or stealing them from meadows this year. :-)

I've realized that I definitely prefer the look of unfussy, somewhat overgrown gardens to ones that are perfectly planned, pruned and mulched. With that in mind, I'm adding some new stuff to my gardens this year that should take me closer to that look. Here are a few gardens that have the style I am talking about.

from bhg.com

creativeearth.co.uk

cdislands.com

Oh, and someday? I am going here. How beautiful is this mountain?

This is the Temblor Range in California. Amazing, isn't it?

Project Curb Appeal .... the continuing saga

There is a little area by the front porch steps that I like to call the step garden. Because, well, it is near the steps. Brilliant, no? I've left it pretty much alone since we moved in, other than a bit of weeding, because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet. However, as the rest of Project Curb Appeal is carried out, this little flower bed was looking sadder and sadder. Right before Culoare Zi I decided that the time had come to transform this patch of dirt into something prettier.

Here's what it looked like the day I started:

I know, it's awful. The hose was there because we were working on the steps, and the mailbox was in the middle of the bed so that the mailman could get to the box while we had the stairs blocked off. The mulch was waiting for me to put it to good use, and the boards are left over from working on the stairs. You can see more of those hideous red landscaping rocks the owners put in (thanks guys!) and a few other miscellaneous nasties.

About an hour later, after some serious work with a shovel, a garbage can and a relocation of some items, I had a clean slate to work with.

I took a few moments to work out the placement of the plants, and then dug their little holes. Eventually I want to put some daylilies in this bed, and a few other plants for more color variety. But for now, I like how it turned out.

My sister in law gave me the salvia plants (in the back) that will have tall purple spikes next year. She gave me the little hosta as well. It is a little leggy this year as it was struggling to get to the light around some tall lilies, but it should come in nice and thick next year too. The mums were from Lowes, and I love the sunny colors of the flowers. There are two more clematis plants behind the salvia that will hopefully grow up over the tree to the left. The only annuals I added were some yellow marigolds and these daisy like flowers whose name I can't recall now. The finishing touch was more of the pine bark nuggets that we put around the bushes in front.

I went with a mix of annuals and perennials that die back in the winter as this is one of the spots where snow accumulates in a major way throughout the winter. A shrub or small tree would just get mangled by the snow, and we can't have that, right?

So what do you think? A nice transformation?

You can read about the whole plan for Project Curb Appeal here, and the other projects we've done so far on it here and here.

I'm linking this post up to Fertilizer Friday over at Tootsie Time. Check out all of the other great gardens!

Project Curb Appeal .... the continuing saga

There is a little area by the front porch steps that I like to call the step garden. Because, well, it is near the steps. Brilliant, no? I've left it pretty much alone since we moved in, other than a bit of weeding, because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it yet. However, as the rest of Project Curb Appeal is carried out, this little flower bed was looking sadder and sadder. Right before Culoare Zi I decided that the time had come to transform this patch of dirt into something prettier.

Here's what it looked like the day I started:

I know, it's awful. The hose was there because we were working on the steps, and the mailbox was in the middle of the bed so that the mailman could get to the box while we had the stairs blocked off. The mulch was waiting for me to put it to good use, and the boards are left over from working on the stairs. You can see more of those hideous red landscaping rocks the owners put in (thanks guys!) and a few other miscellaneous nasties.

About an hour later, after some serious work with a shovel, a garbage can and a relocation of some items, I had a clean slate to work with.

I took a few moments to work out the placement of the plants, and then dug their little holes. Eventually I want to put some daylilies in this bed, and a few other plants for more color variety. But for now, I like how it turned out.

My sister in law gave me the salvia plants (in the back) that will have tall purple spikes next year. She gave me the little hosta as well. It is a little leggy this year as it was struggling to get to the light around some tall lilies, but it should come in nice and thick next year too. The mums were from Lowes, and I love the sunny colors of the flowers. There are two more clematis plants behind the salvia that will hopefully grow up over the tree to the left. The only annuals I added were some yellow marigolds and these daisy like flowers whose name I can't recall now. The finishing touch was more of the pine bark nuggets that we put around the bushes in front.

I went with a mix of annuals and perennials that die back in the winter as this is one of the spots where snow accumulates in a major way throughout the winter. A shrub or small tree would just get mangled by the snow, and we can't have that, right?

So what do you think? A nice transformation?

You can read about the whole plan for Project Curb Appeal here, and the other projects we've done so far on it here and here.

I'm linking this post up to Fertilizer Friday over at Tootsie Time. Check out all of the other great gardens!

Project Curb Appeal: Part 1

Part one of our curbside renovation is complete! If you recall, the plan is multifaceted and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!
• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.
• Replace the porch light fixture
• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.
• Repair the concrete stairs.
• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

Part one was replacing the bushes with fresh pretty ones.

Here's the before:

And the after:

Updating the bushes meant tearing out the mostly dead evergreen bushes, which my very strong lover accomplished in about an hour. Seriously people, this would have taken me a few days if I had tried to tackle this part of the project. He attacked those bushes with vigor, and one hour later there were no bushes to be seen, and the only casualty was an old shovel. :-)

Next up was some fresh dirt mixed in with the old stuff, to give the new bushes a head start. We have a planter in the backyard that we're working on removing, so we simply transplanted the dirt from back to front.

Then we laid out our new bushes to ensure proper placement. Five in the back, two in the front, clematis by the trees, and some daylilies for color and interest.

You may be wondering how we decided on these particular bushes, and where we purchased them.

We actually ordered the boxwoods off of ebay. This was my first time sending away for plants, so needless to say I was a little worried about the results. But, this reno was on a strict budget, and there was no way we could afford $30 a bush when we had to purchase 7 bushes. Do the math people, that's like a lot of money. :-) For bushes. Enter Ebay.

I scored 10 Wintergem Boxwood plants for $20.00 plus shipping. A week later, a box was on my porch with not ten but 12! plants inside, all carefully packed and healthy and green looking. :-) We selected the five biggest and healthiest to put in the front. The extras will replace some other scraggly bushes we have around the yard. And, they were all cheaper than one big plant from a garden center! Now, obviously, they are much smaller, but I specifically chose these bushes for their fast growth rate so it shouldn't be a problem.

I also ordered the Elegantissima Boxwoods from Ebay. These were a little more expensive at $5 each, but we only needed two, and they were still $30 a piece everywhere else.

Both the Wintergem and the Elegantissima keep their happy green color year round, with lighter green leaves showing up in the spring. The Wintergem will grow to be about 3 ft high and across, while the Elegantissima will be a little smaller. We placed the Eleg. slightly in front of the Wintergem as they have pretty little ivory and light green leaves and are slightly more interesting than the Wintergem.

Next up were the daylilies. These guys are just a fun flower that are great for filling in bare spots and adding color and interest. We planted two directly in the ground, and two in large metallic looking pots on the sides. We purchased all four plants from Lowes and we are hoping that we won't need the 1 year guarantee!

Bringing up the tail end of this planting frenzy are the clematis. We planted a clematis by each tall tree on the sides, and gave it a bamboo pole and some wire to climb. The plan in for these little vines to grow up into the trees, where their flowers will add some spice to those old evergreens' lives. The flowers are a pale purple, and they look really nice so far.

In other news, my hanging baskets of petunias are doing wonderful. They have the most heavenly scent, and tons of blooms so far. I hope they keep spreading out so they're even more dramatic.

Project Curb Appeal: Part 1

Part one of our curbside renovation is complete! If you recall, the plan is multifaceted and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!


• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.


• Replace the porch light fixture


• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.


• Repair the concrete stairs.


• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

 

Part one was replacing the bushes with fresh pretty ones.

Here's the before:

And the after:

Updating the bushes meant tearing out the mostly dead evergreen bushes, which my very strong lover accomplished in about an hour. Seriously people, this would have taken me a few days if I had tried to tackle this part of the project. He attacked those bushes with vigor, and one hour later there were no bushes to be seen, and the only casualty was an old shovel. :-)

Next up was some fresh dirt mixed in with the old stuff, to give the new bushes a head start. We have a planter in the backyard that we're working on removing, so we simply transplanted the dirt from back to front.

Then we laid out our new bushes to ensure proper placement. Five in the back, two in the front, clematis by the trees, and some daylilies for color and interest.

You may be wondering how we decided on these particular bushes, and where we purchased them.

We actually ordered the boxwoods off of ebay. This was my first time sending away for plants, so needless to say I was a little worried about the results. But, this reno was on a strict budget, and there was no way we could afford $30 a bush when we had to purchase 7 bushes. Do the math people, that's like a lot of money. :-) For bushes. Enter Ebay.

I scored 10 Wintergem Boxwood plants for $20.00 plus shipping. A week later, a box was on my porch with not ten but 12! plants inside, all carefully packed and healthy and green looking. :-) We selected the five biggest and healthiest to put in the front. The extras will replace some other scraggly bushes we have around the yard. And, they were all cheaper than one big plant from a garden center! Now, obviously, they are much smaller, but I specifically chose these bushes for their fast growth rate so it shouldn't be a problem.

I also ordered the Elegantissima Boxwoods from Ebay. These were a little more expensive at $5 each, but we only needed two, and they were still $30 a piece everywhere else.

Both the Wintergem and the Elegantissima keep their happy green color year round, with lighter green leaves showing up in the spring. The Wintergem will grow to be about 3 ft high and across, while the Elegantissima will be a little smaller. We placed the Eleg. slightly in front of the Wintergem as they have pretty little ivory and light green leaves and are slightly more interesting than the Wintergem.

Next up were the daylilies. These guys are just a fun flower that are great for filling in bare spots and adding color and interest. We planted two directly in the ground, and two in large metallic looking pots on the sides. We purchased all four plants from Lowes and we are hoping that we won't need the 1 year guarantee!

Bringing up the tail end of this planting frenzy are the clematis. We planted a clematis by each tall tree on the sides, and gave it a bamboo pole and some wire to climb. The plan in for these little vines to grow up into the trees, where their flowers will add some spice to those old evergreens' lives. The flowers are a pale purple, and they look really nice so far.

In other news, my hanging baskets of petunias are doing wonderful. They have the most heavenly scent, and tons of blooms so far. I hope they keep spreading out so they're even more dramatic.

Project Curb Appeal

Summer is finally here, and it will be gone before we know it, especially in this cloudy quaint town we call home. We're lucky if we get two good months of hot weather and sun, so there's not a moment to lose!

Project Curb Appeal is well on its way this summer at Wendhurst Castle. While the castle currently looks like this,


We've brainstormed up a lovely makeover on a dime that will really make our castle stand tall with pride. (Ok, so we're already the tallest house on the street. Sheesh, let me dream a little, will ya?)

Anyways, after playing around in Photoshop the other day, I came up with this mockup of our redone exterior.



The Plan:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!
• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.
• Replace the porch light fixture
• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.
• Repair the concrete stairs.
• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

The Players:

• Obviously, a pro powerwasher. We considered trying to do this ourselves, but given the fact that our house is 27 feet tall, we put out the white flag and called in the pros.
• Some nice exterior paint in greens and tans.
• A shiny new light fixture (preferably one that is kind of old looking, actually)
• A plethora of bright green boxwoods, to replace the yucky old evergreeens.
• Concrete and water to make new stairs that are not a hazard.
• Purple petunias and salvia, yellow marigolds and daylilies, and some showy clematis to liven things up in front.

So what do you think? Have we left anything out? Think we can get all this done by the end of the summer? :-D

Project Curb Appeal

Summer is finally here, and it will be gone before we know it, especially in this cloudy quaint town we call home. We're lucky if we get two good months of hot weather and sun, so there's not a moment to lose!

Project Curb Appeal is well on its way this summer at Wendhurst Castle. While the castle currently looks like this,


We've brainstormed up a lovely makeover on a dime that will really make our castle stand tall with pride. (Ok, so we're already the tallest house on the street. Sheesh, let me dream a little, will ya?)

Anyways, after playing around in Photoshop the other day, I came up with this mockup of our redone exterior.



The Plan:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!
• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.
• Replace the porch light fixture
• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.
• Repair the concrete stairs.
• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

The Players:

• Obviously, a pro powerwasher. We considered trying to do this ourselves, but given the fact that our house is 27 feet tall, we put out the white flag and called in the pros.
• Some nice exterior paint in greens and tans.
• A shiny new light fixture (preferably one that is kind of old looking, actually)
• A plethora of bright green boxwoods, to replace the yucky old evergreeens.
• Concrete and water to make new stairs that are not a hazard.
• Purple petunias and salvia, yellow marigolds and daylilies, and some showy clematis to liven things up in front.

So what do you think? Have we left anything out? Think we can get all this done by the end of the summer? :-D

June Blooms

Here is a look at my garden this month. We'll start out with a few annuals I have planted. I wanted to try out petunias this year, and I chose a few white ones for the deck,


Purple petunias for the hanging baskets off the deck and the front porch, and yellow marigolds for the driveway. There isn't a picture of the marigolds yet, as I have raised them from seed and they haven't bloomed yet. But, they are getting bigger every day. :-)



Next up are the flowers that grow wild in the yard. My guess is God planted them for me, just to make me smile.

I love daisies, and these grow wild in one of the planters. The whole bed is filled with them, and I love them.




Then there are these yellow buttercup-y ones, only they are bigger than buttercups.


This purple one is so pretty,



These have got to be one of my favorite flowers. They are just so pretty, and they pop up in the most random of places. Some people call them Johnny Jump Ups, I think. I want to get a bunch more of these so they're everywhere next year.



Next up are the flowers that were already planted by the previous owners. Last year most of these were really scraggly, but a little TLC last summer meant that they came up profusely this year. Except for this allium. I think it is hideous, but even though I dug it out last year, it came back again. Solo. Just one, weird looking flower.


The blackberry bushes were overrun by ivy last year, and were too strangled and shaded to produce much fruit. This year we have lots of canes, and tons of flowers like these, getting ready to produce yummy fruit.


This little guy is a miracle. He is in the same bed as the peony below, and last year I almost stepped on him he was so small. This little rose bush was probably only a foot tall last year, completely overgrown by weeds, and only had four little stems sticking out. We cleared all the weeds out, and Lover chopped it down to the ground. Apparently it took to the pruning, as this year it is almost four feet tall and wide, and covered with little flowers like this one. Anyone know what kind of rose this might be?


The other rosebush, up by the driveway, is blooming prolifically. If it follows true to form, it will bloom all summer, which I am looking forward to. The flowers are so big they bow the stems sometimes. :-)




When we moved in there was an entire bed of these irises. They were so overgrown that it was just yucky, and they were all packed in. I pulled them all out and replanted a select few in some of the other beds, and they are much more beautiful now that we have some room to admire their loveliness.


But the star of the month has got to be the Peony. These beautiful flowers are simply stunning, and I get so excited when they finally open. The flowers are huge, and they are just lush and creamy and beautiful We'll be dividing this plant at the end of the summer, so hopefully we'll get even more blooms next year.



Gorgeous, isn't it? I'll leave you with one more photo of the peonies.


Ok, I lied. Just one more. Really. Have a great day!