Spring is Springing!!

I am soo excited. We just came in for a snack after being outside most afternoon for the third nice day in a row!! Woo Hoo! I think spring might be here.

And the most exciting part is in the garden. Every day while we've been out, I've taken Layla (she's my little gardener) around the front flowerbeds looking at the crocuses that are blooming (and being eaten by nasty rabbits) and the tulips and daffodils that are sprouting.

But, today, we ventured to the side flowerbed that I completely tore out last year and planted all new perennials. I planted them...watered them some and then basically abused/neglected them through the hottest part of the summer. I thought for sure they were dead...never to be seen again...only to have to repurchase again this year...but miracles do happen and that is one of the beauties of perennials. They are almost all sprouting!

I can see life on both of my bleeding hearts, black-eyed susans and one of the coneflowers. I'm not really worried if the other coneflower didn't survive. A first year success rate of 83% is extremely good for this experimenting gardener and coneflowers are relatively cheap - I could even try growing it from a seed

Speaking of seeds, you should see the top of my gardening bench right now. It is covered in seed packets - Everything from vegetables and herbs to flowers, perennials and annuals! All are just waiting for me to buy some shallow pans to put the pots on in our portable greenhouse (thanks, Mom!).

The pans should be purchased tomorrow, or maybe Friday and then the planting will begin! We visited Menard's and Wal-Mart this week to purchase seeds (still need to check out Meijer), we'll be recycling cardboard egg cartons for seed starting pots and I purchased entirely too much potting soil last year so we already have that on hand to begin this gardening season!

Last year I decided to tackle two flower beds a summer (ripping most everything out that was left there by the previous owner and replanting). We were blessed with many ok-looking, well-defined flowerbeds completely surrounding our house when we purchased it. However, some of them were very messy and I just couldn't handle it. Plus, I have many pictures of flowers I want growing around my home and not very many of them were included in the purchase price of our home!

So, I began with two last year. The front raised beds and the west side bed. As you can tell from above, I am almost completely pleased with the side bed and the front bed as well. In my mind, flower beds are always a work-in-progress, but they look good enough for now and I will add as I come across the things I'm looking to fill in on sale (think hydrangea

This summer, we are tackling the flowerbed to the east side of the deck in the back and the small bed on the west side of the garage. Our first task is rip out most of the African grass that is currently surrounding the deck. We like some of it as it provides lots of much needed privacy from some less than desirable neighbors, but there is entirely too much of it taking up precious real estate meant for butterfly and hummingbird attracting flowers.

Besides, the side of the deck also has a huge evergreen that provides privacy from another neighbor's back yard. So the African grass there really serves no purpose other than to create lots of work and an even bigger mess, as it dies every winter, sheds every spring and litters everyone's yards with long, blond, stringy plant matter that must be raked almost as much as the leaves in the fall. That is on the “honey-do” list for this weekend – digging up the grass that is, not raking, I’ve been doing that all week

And, we have mounds of daylilies coming in the other bed on the list for this summer. They will be dug up and offered up to those willing to come get them through Freecycle.org. Or if you live close and would like some, here’s your chance.


Of course, I just saw a sale on hydrangeas, which is one of my “dream” plants for the front bed, so I might just have to buy that and rip out something there this weekend, too, to make room for a hydrangea

I was going to post some pictures of all of these beds, but there’s not much pretty there right now (a couple crocuses, but that’s it). So, I’ll leave it all to your imagination and that way when I post pictures later this summer, you’ll be surprised, hopefully in a good way.

So, those are my gardening plans and the spring bug that is inside of me to dig my hands in the dirt is getting antsier (is that a word) every day. What are your plans for gardening this summer?