Garden Updates

The hostas that D's mom gave me are doing wonderfully.

The varigated one is huge!

This unique yellow hosta was given to me by my friend and neighbour, T. Notice how the stems are red? It was not growing well in her full sun garden, but is flourishing in my shady one!

The astilbe that T also gave me is doing well. I've lost the tag she gave me with it, so I don't know when it will bloom, hopefully soon. The little purple flowers I bought at Wal-mart, but it wasn't until I got home that I realized that they were for full sun, we will see how they do in the shade, but I may have to give them to T next year.

The Daylilies from D's moms garden are just starting to bloom, I wonder what colour they are going to be? I can't remember what her looked like from last year, and I keep forgetting to ask her.

This is an Alpine Columbine that I bought from Wal-mart. I just love the unique shape of hte flower, but aparently it's hard to photograph with my camera...

This looks like I was down a hill trying to take this picture, but there is no hill there!

Long Weekend Projects

Back to work after a lovely long weekend. It came early this year, which I don't like because of the higher probability of cold weather. Saturday ended up raining a bit so it was a good thing we tackled our first project that day and stayed indoors cleaning the house. D's mom and some of her girlfriends were passing through town and had not seen the house, so they were going to be stopping by. Our house has not been this sparkling since we moved in! And it stayed clean for about a whole 24 hrs.

Sunday we started our biggest project of the weekend, new lighting for the kitchen and bathrooms! We have been waiting for a tax refund to be able to buy the lights and that, after a year, finally came in last week so we went shopping! The first store we tried to go to was closed, and the second one was too expensive but we found all 5 light fixtures we needed at Canadian Tire of all places. A couple were even on sale! We managed to get the first one installed before my parents came over for dinner that night (we thought we'd take advantage of the clean house and have everyone in). We almost installed 2 more on Monday but realized that we need a ceiling hook to complete the light over the kitchen table, so that will have to wait. for now, it is hanging so low that it is almost hiting the back of the chair. I'm not sure when we will be able to get to the bathroom vanity lights. Hopefully soon.

The last project this weekend was kind of impromtu. I went to the garden center with my neighbour T, just to have a look, and found some wonderful purple and white flowers. I planted them in some urns in the front of our house.

The Making of a Garden

Last year at this time, while we had possession of our house, we hadn't yet moved in. We were busy painting all the walls, installing a dishwasher, and replacing the floors. There was so much work going on inside, that we didn't bother to do anything with the yard. It did help that a month after moving in, I lost my job and we had no money to do anything outside either... but that's another story.

This year however, with the early warm weather, I got the itch to start a garden. I started with this:

This is hanging just outside the patio doors and it contains: Rosemary, Peppermint, and Oregano.
I have another hanging basket shown here:

It has two basil plants (love basil) and dill. I still have to find somewhere with a lot of sun to hang it. Next to that, is a HUGE chive plant that D's mom divided from her garden. That is going to be lovely in sour cream on potatoes from the bbq... mmmmmm. And in the big green metal pot is a hazel tree that D liked. That pot does not drain, so hopefully that tree can swim. Actually I think we may have to dig that tree out and create drainage in the bottom or at least put more plants in there to use up some of that water.

And finally the pièce de résistance, my little shade garden:

It contains hostas and daylilies from D's mom's garden, a couple hostas and an astilbe from my neighbour, T's, garden that didn't grow in hers because her yard is full sun. The rocks around the edge are ones that I dug up while making this garden (no wonder the grass wasn't growing), I hope to slowly replace those stones with ones from the cottage.

Speaking of the cottage, something I haven't done in a while, here is a clipping from my Grandma's Scrapbook:

Results & Roses
Via Aunt Grace Keller

The man who wants a garden fair,
Or small, or very big.
With flowers growing here and there
Must bend his back, and dig.
The things are mighty few on earth
That wishes can attain
Whate’er we want of any worth
We’ve go to work, to gain.
It matters not what good you seek
It’s secret here reposes:
You’ve got to dig from week to week
To get results, – or roses.