My little world...

So here's what happening in my little corner of the world...

We were eating dinner on the deck one night, and this mama duck and her four babies were in the neighbor's yard having their dinner. Too cute!!

Exactly one week later, they were making the trip from one pond to another - walking across the yards. I couldn't believe how much the babies had grown!

This was the night of the bad storm last week. That cloud was soooo nasty-looking! It was like the mothership of clouds hovering over the city - like the alien mothership in "V", LOL.

This colorful little fella spun his web on the deck between the grill and the house. It was a huge web, too! I think he's some type of orb weaver from the look of his web.

And he looked like he had a huge eyeball on his body, LOL. Don't know what happened to him though, because when Gus took the cover off the grill, he didn't see Spidey. Oops.

So. You see these clumps of Japanese Silver Grass? Yeah. Well, we planted them at the same time two years ago. Obviously, they get the same soil, sun, and water, so I'm not sure why one is huge and the other is tiny. Any ideas?

flowers on one of my hostas

campanula

butterfly on the buddeleia

another butterfly on the buddeleia

Have a wonderful weekend!!

What we did this weekend...

No relaxing for us - we worked in the yard all weekend! We planted flowers and put down 21 bags of mulch - oh, my aching back!! I didn't take pictures of everything, but I did take some, and I thought I'd share them.

Some pictures from the front yard: the irises, hostas, and Stella d'Oro lilies were there when we moved in 3 years ago - we added the other lilies, liriope, and campanula. We're not thrilled with the lilies because we thought they would be more mounded like the Stella d'Oro lilies - so those will probably be relegated to the back yard, and we'll need to find something new to put in their place.

I like having potted flowers on the front porch. I did this pot this weekend - I love the color mix! We have red New Guinea impatiens in hanging baskets - and I need to do a pot to sit on the black wrought iron table that's on the porch.

When we first moved here, the side yard was horrible! There were a couple of hostas and a couple of astilbe - and the ground was all dried up and nasty. All of the landscaping (front & side yards) was edged in that nasty black plastic edging - I hate that stuff!! You can see the horrible back yard, too.

This is the side yard after 3 years of babying it and planting perennials. This picture doesn't do it justice - it's really pretty! The pictures that I've posted in the past of the lamiastrum and ajuga were from the side yard.

And while we were working in the yard, we found baby animals! There were two baby bunnies - one took off down the street, and the other ran into our garage. I was afraid he'd get overheated in there or not be able to find his way out, so I searched until I found him wedged between some shelving. We took a picture and then let him go in the side yard. He was only about 4 inches long! His ears were only about an inch long!

In the river birch that sits near the edge of the front yard, there is a robin's nest with 3 babies! I swear they get bigger every day. This one was brave and managed to hop up onto the edge of the nest. It was pretty windy, so I was afraid he was going to fall!

So far, we've had a turtle, a chipmunk, geese, ducks, praying mantids, toads, baby birds, baby rabbits...I have to wonder what we're going to find next!

What did you do this weekend?

Flower update

The weather has been incredible lately - and it shows in how quickly my flowers are growing. It was just about 2 1/2 weeks ago that I posted pictures of the flowers in my yard - and most of them were just starting to make an appearance. (you can see them in this post)

Now look at them!

We're trying to decide what new flowers to plant this year. Gus and Buddy took out the evergreen cedars that flanked the garage - so glad to have those gone!!! We're thinking of replacing them with red shrub roses (since our front door is red).

Then there is the river birch in the front yard - we've planted annuals under it each year, but I want to put perennials there this year. The problem is that whatever is planted there will get full sun - all day long. The river birch offers minimal dappled shade. And most perennials have a limited blooming season and we'd like something that will bloom spring to fall. So we bought 4 Geranium Rozanne plants  - these have blue/purple flowers that appear late spring through frost, they tolerate full sun, and don't require any maintenance. We also bought 4 white calibrachoa (they call it Supertunia - which cracks me up because it sounds like a type of sushi, LOL) plants to put in between the geraniums this year - these are annuals; they're a trailing petunia with tiny flowers and you don't need to deadhead the flowers like you do for regular petunias.

My Grammy always told me - "never plant flowers before Mother's Day - no matter how tempted you are or how warm the weather is" - and I have always listened to her advice. And I think we usually do end up having a couple of frost warnings in April and the first part of May, LOL! In fact, I think there were a couple of years where we had frost warnings after Mother's Day! So, after Mother's Day, I'll put red New Guinea impatiens in hanging baskets on the front porch and purple calibrachoa in the trough baskets hanging on the deck rails in the back. And I'll do a blanket of multicolored impatiens in the raised area beside the patio (under the deck). There will be more pictures to come!

What are you planting this year?

Today is a beautiful day!

Not only is the sun shining and a warm breeze blowing...but the UPS man dropped off a package for me!! Yay!! My Target order arrived!!!

The kitties are enjoying the day, too. I opened the three windows behind my desk, and they promptly chose their spots...

All of my flowers are coming up - and the shrubs are getting green! Yay!! It will be wonderful to finally see some color around here...

Are you enjoying the weather, too?