Monogrammed Mom

My Garden

I worked on my flower garden.  I made it bigger and curved it.  I added perennials (they come up year after year but only flower for a short time) and annuals (they live for one season but give you color--flowers--all season long).  I saw an article in B.etter Homes and Gardens where a woman planted an En.glish Cottage Garden.  This is a style where you have perennials, annuals, trees, shrubs, bushes, herbs, bird baths, benches, walkways, gazing balls and anything else you feel like putting in there.  Her garden was mature and it looked gorgeous.  I know it will take a couple of years and I will be adding more plants as the years go on but I look forward to it being full and lush.

This is my garden before:

 

After a lot of sweating, digging and cow manure and peat moss mixing:

I do have to take a better picture of the whole thing.  I need also to add mulch or something to bring it all together and prevent weeds.

Logan and Kona, "Crazy planting lady makes us hot just watching."

An old tv stand turned plant stand.  Oregano, basil, zinnias, new guinea impatiens and calladium (elephant's ear).

The tradition continues

One of the things I always liked about the summer was strawberry picking with my Nana.  We would get up and go early to beat the hot sun.  It was such a good time with her.  Today we took Elisabeth to Bloomsburg and picked three huge bowls of strawberries.  Elisabeth did her best but she got hot.  Her and Nana hung out in the car with the a/c. 
We met Poppy and had lunch at The Perfect Blend in Berwick.  We ran into Connie and her daughters--Jasmine, Nora and Raina.  All the girls sat with my Dad while they were eating. It was very cute.
After lunch we drove to my parents house.  Elisabeth heard the kids in the pool next door and immediately came in the house and got changed. I left her swimming and did some more errands with Nana in tow.
I finally planted the rest of my plants and transplanted some to larger pots.  I'm pretty good with plants (thanks Dundee). 
I'm going to try my hand at strawberry jam with Nana's help.  There are so many things I would like to learn how to do.  For example:  sew, advanced knitting, canning and everything handy my Dad knows.  One thing at a time.

Fertility update:  First cycle with Clomid.  It wasn't too bad.  The first day I was loopy with hot flashes, second I had a bad headache and the last three days I was okay.  I hope it works. 

Cow manure

We bought a whole bunch of plants, perennials and vegetables, last week and it's time to get started gardening.  Elisabeth and I went to Lowe's for cow manure and container potting soil.  I looked at their annuals and couldn't find the cleomes.  Perennials are great. They come up year after year but they only bloom for a short time. Annuals are great because they give you color all season long but they only live for one season.  I'm going to put in a mix of both.  We did alot of planting last year of lilies, boxwood, ornamental grass, burning bush and artesmia.  Every year we will add on. My Nana bought me two beautiful pink hydrangeas.  I love them.  They were the flowers I had in my wedding bouquet and the bridesmaids also.  Very old fashioned they are.  I go all over now to find my flowers.  Some places have the same thing every year. I like to get different annuals every year. I love petunias but they didn't do so hot last year. 
My friend Julia sent me this in an email.  The sign was up for two hours until someone told them how to correctly spell peonies. Click on the picture to make it bigger.  I'm still learning how to load pictures and the words came out blurry.