Hot House Flower

Gentle readers, it is time for my semi annual attempt at gardening. I have been working hard for the past several weeks to get my yard to look nice for summer, so here is a tour of my yard where you will see the results of my stellar gardening skillz. And there's a little something extra at the end...

Imagine that you are walking up to my house, greeted by this welcoming view:

A view of the rest of the front of the house including my front window box and the front flower bed. I have planted seeds in the flower bed and have my fingers crossed that something will grow. For now, the mulch at least makes it look nicer than the weeds, leaves, and twigs that filled the flower bed before.




The windows on the side of my house and the window box below--some of these plants are struggling a little because of chipmunks using the planter as a playground, but I am determined to win this fight with copious amounts of cayenne pepper.

The rock garden in the front of the house--we designed this last year using the two large stones that you see on the sides to start. I put the tall one between to block the base of a flag pole that I don't use. The rest of the rocks are cool ones that we found around the yard. I decided a week ago that this looked too much like a pet grave, so I planted the hydrangea in the center hoping that it will eventually grow large enough that this will look like a small garden rather than a grave.

This is a view of the seating area of my porch. Take note of the disgusting floor, which will disappear this summer.

My "bleeding heart" plant--these are so pretty.

Close up of the bleeding heart so you can see how it got its name (sorry for the blurry picture--I couldn't get it to be any clearer).

My herbs--from left to right: chives, lemon verbena, Italian parsley, and basil.

Close up view of one of my hanging baskets--these are all purple petunias.

A view of the porch from the back of the house.

Picture window and window box in the back of the house--this part of the house is also a popular bat hangout.

View of my "Lord Help Me Hang In There" sign on the right--thanks, Leah!

In addition to the plants that I purposely incorporate into my yard, I also have wildflowers like this that grow by the creek:

I grow the best weeds in the state:

This baby bunny likes the food in my yard. It drives McKenna crazy.

And the bonus photo of this blog, my new plates:

I found these at TJ Maxx this week and bought four of them and I'm on the lookout for more. Aren't they cute?

Next up: White Wedding: Just Say "No" To Drugs