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Sunrise, Sunset
Wow, I didn’t realize it has been quite so long since my last post. We have been in the new house for almost a month and so far so good! We are just waiting on the new sofa to come and then I have to persuade Matt to buy a dining room table. My craft desk is on the way and then I can start working on that room (which I’m really excited about)!
Yesterday Matt was sitting on the screen porch and I was inside on the sofa. I hear him tap on the window and motion for me to come out. I figured Julio was doing something cute. I wasn’t prepared for what I saw. The sky was filled with blues, pinks, and purples. It was AMAZING! I knew if the back yard was that pretty, the front would be even more amazing, and I was right!
I grabbed my camera and we both ran upstairs to the Ensuite. The windows are almost even with the roof so we opened the windows and I sat on the window sill and took some pics. The sky was just beautiful.
It’s not just sunsets that are amazing at the new house either. Sunrise has been pretty good since the time change (when I’m actually up to see the sunrise). I took these pics the other morning as I was leaving the house. Needless to say, I think I’m going to like it here!
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I’m running out of room
For plants in the yard. Ya’ll this is craziness! I have NEVER been a gardener but lately I can’t seem to get enough plants.
Saturday I ran to Lowe’s and picked up some cute Coral Reef Sedum ground cover to replace the old, yucky, spotty monkey grass. I had no idea what I wanted when I went to Lowe’s but this cute stuff caught my eye and for $10.00 a flat I couldn’t pass it up.
Yesterday I started working on digging up the current monkey grass. Thankfully it was a pretty small area but it still took about an hour for me to get it all pulled up. I planted my sedum and as I was finishing up Matt came out to check on my progress. By this time I knew I needed more garden border, potting soil, and mulch. He happily ran to Lowe’s while I worked on a few more things. Then he helped me get the border in place. Since the sedum is a trailing plant I figured it was probably a good idea to contain it the best I could. Plus the border makes the space look nice and finished.
Unfortunately my gardening didn’t just stop with the ground cover. As we were walking into the grocery store I saw some beautiful flowers called ranunculus. I immediately fell in love and ended up buying a pot when we left. 🙂 Now I have to plant it. I thought I might pot it but I have a little space in the corner of the front with nothing there. I was just thinking I needed something for that space so I have a feeling that’s where the ranunculus will go.
I have failed to mention just how sore I am. My hamstrings are killing me today. I knew it was going to be bad as soon as I headed up the stairs yesterday. I was right. Sore back, sore butt, sore hammies.
Here are a few pics of the yard.
This is last year before I did any yard work. I HATED these ugly bushes.
This is after we pulled the bushes out with the new Azaleas, Mums and Pansies. You can see the monkey grass by the porch. I’m thinking I might put the ranunculus in between the mum on the left and the bush. It’s pretty open and could use a filler.
My ranunculus
Close up of the Coral Reef Sedum
The Coral Reef Sedum where the monkey grass used to be. It should fill the bed in a few months, I hope.
~k
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Yard work Update
I decided I was having a competition with our neighbors across the street for the best yard. They ripped out their bushes a few weeks before we did and planted one measly little plant. It died before they got the other 2 in. They’ve since added a couple of mums and bush but still, I feel like they had no direction so clearly we just won. In this post I showed you the before and after. This weekend Matt and I ran to Lowe’s and got 5 small azaleas and a flat of pansies. I bought 2 mums a few weeks ago but with my surgery I hadn’t been able to plant them.
I asked my mom and dad to come over yesterday and help me plant my bushes. I figured mom would enjoy doing some yard work since that’s her thing. We figured out our arrangement and my dad was nice enough to dig holes for us so we could plant everything. We staggered the azalea’s put the mums at the bottom and planted the pansies in between the mums. I think the arrangement turned out well. Mom also brought me her irises. We planted them on the side of the house for now. Once mom and dad get settled she will take the ones she wants and leave me a few. They aren’t really in the best spot but living in a townhouse there isn’t that much room to plant things.
~k
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Yard work
For the past 2 years, or however long I’ve lived with Matt, I have HATED our bushes out front. Now I’m not really a gardener but in the past few months I’ve done pretty well keeping my plants alive, minus the rose bush. I don’t wanna talk about it. 😉 I had already decided as soon as fall came I was ripping those ugly damn bushes out and putting something else in.
Before Well yesterday was that day. Matt and I ran to Lowes and bought a small shovel and some mulch. While we were there we looked at plants and I think I’m going to put a few small azaleas in the space but I wanted to wait until the bushes were gone before buying something else. We got home and while Matt was watching football, I grabbed Julio and we went outside to pull out the bushes. This actually turned out to be a lot more difficult then I thought it would be. Thankfully the ground was wet so that made it a little easier but there were still spots I just couldn’t get the shovel in. Matt finally looked outside and came downstairs. He ended up having to help me get all 3 bushes out. Suckers were super heavy. I didn’t really expect that. 🙂
Once we got the bushes out the flower bed was a mess. Not to mention there was a ton of trash in the ground. I found a bottle opener key chain, a long yellow plastic thing, and some netting. Thankfully I didn’t find a snake or any other creepy crawleys. I tried to get the dirt spread around but it was really a disaster. Matt suggested we buy some edging while we were at Lowes so he helped me put that in and that helped to define the space. Once we had the edging in we put down the mulch. Oh man, you can’t imagine the difference. The space looks SOOOO much better. Even with no plants it just feels clean and crisp. I am really looking forward to putting in more bushes and hopefully keeping the space a little more organized. 🙂
After ~k
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A rose by any other name
Would still be a rose. 😉 And currently there is a new knock-out rose bush sitting on my deck. I decided to buy one over the weekend. I talked to my mom and she assured me they are very hardy and love lots of sun. Since our deck gets full sun most of the day I thought it would be a great for it to live. Plus this way I will see it and I might actually remember to water it. 🙂
And pretty picture time. 🙂
P.S. I promise I am working on the NYC stuff. Just Sunday and night pics left.
~k
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The “Southern” is coming out!
What I mean by this is the “southern” love of gardening is starting to come out. My whole life I have been all bah humbug about gardening. Honestly I couldn’t really think of anything I really cared less for but now, now I have the bug. It started with a few random plants in the house. Since I’ve managed to actually keep a couple alive for a few years I’m starting to get more adventurous.
You may remember the herbal disaster of last summer but let’s get real, our deck gets SOOO much mid-day sun I think I would be hard pressed to find anything that would grow there. But this hasn’t discouraged me. The orchid I got for Valentine’s day last year is still alive. Granted I don’t think I will ever bloom again but it’s still growing. Then there are the hostas from last year. One of which made it though the winter in the garage with minimal sun and no water. Let’s not forget the begonia’s I planted a few weeks ago and now, now I have gone and done it.
For a while now I’ve really really wanted a hydrangea. There is a townhouse on the other street that has a few hydrangeas on the side of their house. I thought about doing the same thing but after talking to my mom she said our side would probably get too much sun. Well crap. But then she told me she’d had really good luck growing them in planters while she was in NC. Aaaaaahhh!
With this new found knowledge I told Matt we were going to Lowe’s to buy one Friday after work. After searching through the lot I finally found the one I wanted. It is right on the edge of blooming and the flowers should be pink. It was a bit more then I really wanted to spend but with Lowe’s guarantee, I thought what the hell. If it dies in the first year I can take it back and get a refund. So my 20 bucks won’t be a waste. Once I found the right plant I found a cute {okay let’s be real it’s decent at best} pot but it works and it wasn’t super expensive. If it does well this year I might invest in a better pot next year but for it’s fine.
And here it is, my new awesome hydrangea bush. EEKKK!
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Let there be light!
Matt and I were very busy over the weekend. On Saturday we drove to VA Beach for the day to see my friend Brandi and her new baby, Brooklyn. Brooklyn was an absolute doll. There is nothing sweeter then a baby sleeping in your arms making little baby coos.
Saturday the in-laws drove up to get Matt’s aunt and grandmother. They flew in from London for vacation. After lunch Matt and I headed to Target to grab a few things. As we were browsing we came across some cute solar powered lights for the walkway. Now we don’t really need little lights to line the sidewalk because we keep our porch lights on but they were just too cute to pass up and at $5.00 each I thought they were a steal. When we got home we immediately put them in the ground and “ahhhhhhhhhh” they look awesome! You can’t see them from the street really but I know they are there.
~k
