June 22, 2011: New path and more annuals

When I bought the hanging baskets (last post), I also got another flat of impatiens and a flat of coleus and crammed my front garden full. Here are two views of the garden now.

When Papa visited last week be brought me some more paving stones as well, so I made the path more distinct.

June 20, 2011: Rats and Hanging Baskets

We have a family of rats living in our back yard, so we need to get rid of the bird feeder. I bought two beautiful hanging baskets to hang on the porch instead. One is a double million bells, the other is a bacopa (for only $15!).

The bacopa (still need to find a place for it):

 Close up of the million bells:

 View of the hanging basket from the house:

June 18, 2011: Good and bad news

Well, the good news is that my mail-order hostas finally arrived and I got them in the ground. The bad news is, while I was away in CO, I forgot to tell Dan to water the plants and the rhododendron seems to have completely died. Here is the view of the whole garden:

My biggest hosta is blooming - 4 stalks covered in white, fragrant flowers. It is really pretty. 

Here are the new hostas - almost all are starters or "mature divisions," so they don't have many leaves or look too impressive right now. I plan to buy more annuals to fill in around them so the garden doesn't look so sparse. This is my new hosta for the left front corner of the garden - Jewel of the Nile.

 This is a mature division of Sum and Substance (with the mostly dead rhododendron behind). I was warned that this hosta will get huge - which is exactly what I want for this part of the garden. It should be really impressive next year.

 On the other end of the scale - Blue Mouse Ears. This hosta was free with my order. The leaves are about the size of thumb prints - it is SO cute!

 I thought this was a really unique and interesting looking hosta - Bitsy Gold. It is quite small, quite yellow, and has very narrow leaves.

 Continuing my love of blue hostas, I got this "Hadspen Blue" to go near the foot path.

 I planted "Empress Wu" under the tree. It isn't very big yet, but it will get HUGE.

 And I got a coral bells - Heuchera Caramel. I hope the color will be a nice contrast in the garden.

 Finally, I had TONS of impatiens seed from last year. I'm going to thin/transplant them all around the garden. I also still need to get some coleus for color, height, and to fill in the bare spots.

Finally, I bought a nice large, pretty pot and repotted my elephant ears in it. If they grow big I think they will look fantastic!

May 19, 2011: More growing and a few flowers!

This is the view of the whole garden. As you can see, the large blue hosta (I have to look up the name again) has grown a lot since last year. All the other hostas have come up bigger as well. 

Here is a close up:

Guacamole coming up on the left, great expectations mixed with a friend in the center. You can also see the ferns and astillbe in this shot.

Here are the forget-me-nots and the japanese painted fern - it came up much later than the other ferns so I was worried it had died.

Here is Paul's glory (hosta) in its new location and some of the other ferns, hostas, etc.

The first flower showing on the geranium. Unfortunately this was uprooted and died a few days after this photo was taken.

May 3, 2011: Growing fast!

Here is the standard view from the driveway. The daffodils are done and the perennials are all coming on strong. Most of the plants have at least doubled in size in the last week. 

The large hosta on the corner is already twice as big as last year: 

The forget-me-nots look beautiful. And the Japanese painted fern has come up - I was worried it might not have made it because all the other ferns started much earlier.

The back row near the porch is looking great - from left to right there is a climbing hydrangea (not visible), a goat's beard, two large ferns, two and two astilbe in different colors. In front you can see guacamole hosta coming up, ginger, and great expectations plus a mystery hosta grouped together.

January 31, 2011: Hosta Binge!

I'm ready for spring, but it is still a long way off, so I mail ordered some hostas just for fun! I started with the giant "Empress Wu" for under the tree:

"Sum and Substance" for the same area or maybe to the right of the path:

"Jewel of the Nile" I got to put on the corner where Paul's glory now lives. I'll move Paul's glory to another (shadier) location in the spring.

"Hadspen Blue" was an impulse buy - probably for under the tree as well or in the back:

"Bitsy Gold" was so interesting I couldn't resist:

This hosta "Blue Mouse Ears" came as a free gift:

And I couldn't resist this beautiful Heuchera "Caramel:"