A New Shade Garden

I changed my mind over and over about where I was going to put the plants I bought last weekend. After having them for a week I had to make up my mind. After sitting them down in a few spots I picked this area off the side of the porch. This area is on the west side and the big pecan tree is above this area. After watching carefully the amount of sun here is minimal. It will receive mostly dappled sun after 4:45 for a couple of hours. Hopefully this will be perfect. The area will drain but will retain a moist area due to it's location. 

Behind the grass this is what it looks like. A pecan graveyard. I expect I'll be cleaning out a lot of pecans from the garden this year. Oh well.

After clearing and digging the grass and ground up. This is what I had when I quit on Saturday. I stood there and looked and thought 'this is not gonna work - girl gotta have a bigger garden'. After all the hostas are too crowded here and no room for the caladiums.

So off the Lowe's I went and purchases more edging stones and went to work. Always when I put in a garden by the house I leave room behing the garden so rear access is available and also I want to get to the sides of the house. 

Here I am also able to pull in the azalea bush in and include with this area and that will also make the azalea more healthy. 

The first bloom on the hydrangea going into this garden. Isn't it pretty.

A bloom on the begonia. It's barely off the ground and already blooming. Begonia's are usually kind to me so I'm looking for some hefty plants and blooms.

A bloom on this one too. Look how tiny the plant is.

Help identify this plant. It is in the garden where seeds were put out and mixed up. Those tiny sprigs are grass.





The storms were horrible this weekend. There was a tornado only about 25 miles from me but other than the wind my weather didn't get too bad. There were so many lives lost during the storms that roared through on Friday and throughout the weekend. Prayers for those who lost loved ones and their homes.

Hope you have a great day.

A Few New Blooms

This patch of seeds put out last month is doing so good. I think you identified these as blue bedder salvia. If wrong please correct me.

The penta is struggling to open a flower. The pentas don't seem to like it in my gardens. Oh well there are others that do.

Did you guys hear me singing to the top of my voice when I walked out and found this baby open. I've been anxiously waiting on this. I put out 6 Iris last year and this is all I've got so far. There are 4 other buds on this one. This one is called Full Tide. 

As you can see on the package it doesn't look like this one. I like what I got best though because you know I love my purple and pinks. 

And speaking of pinks I have to show my Strawberry Parfait Dianthus again. I'm in love here.

And with this sweet thing too. I love the pom pom like balls it puts on.

After all the other azaleas have bloomed out here comes the this one. This is the late bloomer every year and I'm glad that it blooms after the others are gone. It puts on rose like flowers all over it. 

I didn't do much gardening work this weekend. Shame on me... not. Well I'm kinda planning now. I started off like I was gonna garden when I made a visit to Lowe's this weekend. I spotted so many things I want to go back and buy but I settled on a start to a shade garden that I was gonna do this weekend but... then I changed my mind. I'm about to make a new garden right along the front of the house where I cut down the shrubs a couple of weeks ago. But its something I'll be working on for a couple of weeks. Get back to ya on that. (I could change my mind again).

I love hostas and these 4 will be nice starters.

Never seen a Persian Shield before but I love the contrast in color and texture.

I was wanting another hydrangea and am happy to find a nice healthy one here from Endless Summer collection.

 Oops the caladiums didn't load. Bought a few caladiums too and they will look nice next to the Persian Shield and the hostas.

I swear this is a zinnia but I don't remember a seeing one with such huge leaves so early on.

This is one of the mystery plants. Do you know?

I believe this is okra hibuscus. 

Last year this area was full of dahlias. Why are they no shows this year? I pulled weeds from this bed but haven't seen any dahlias from last year.

I'm happy to see that my begonias will be returning on their own.



Hope you all have a great day.

In My Gardens This Week

Today I am linking up with Fishtail Cottage for Cottage Flora Thursdays and with Tootsie at Tootsie Time. You can go to their links here http://fishtailcottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/cottage-flora-thursdays-12.html

and http://www.tootsietime.com/.

Things are popping here on the Gulf Coast as spring has arrived. The bridal wreath (spirea) is still putting on a show. I love their delicate blooms.

This is my twice a year blooming azalea. Soon they will be open all over the area.

Daffodils are slow to bloom and only giving a bloom at a time. Don't know why they aren't busting out like last year. But I'm loving the double bloom on this one. As you can see it is small.

 Nemesia.

Snaps are in their prime right now but they will be blooming all summer long and into the fall. They love it here.

Dianthus are putting on blooms but they are leggy. I didn't do the fertilizer yet so it is my fault. I'm lazy sometime - what can I say. But the Miracle Gro is on my counter in the kitchen.

Azaleas are so hard to photograph.

Purchased a few new additions to the gardens this past weekend. Loving this fire red here. So hard to photograph.

I fotgot the names of some of the plants I bought since I stupidly removed the ID tags. Shame on me.

This is a new dianthus. It will be different than the other I have. I'm looking forward to what these will look like.

This a very different verbena. Loving the soft colors. 

My Sarah Bernhardt peony is coming back and looking good. I'm so hoping for a bloom this year. I planted this two years ago and it hasn't bloomed yet. 

These shasta plants stayed green all winter long. I planted these last year from seeds I had done early in the year. They didn't bloom last year so I'm hoping for some blooms. If it doesn't do this year I'm pulling them out. 

My one and only hosta. Didn't do much last year so this year should be better. I would so love to have a hosta garden. Maybe soon.

Bought another Butterfly Bush. I'm looking forward to lots of butterflies this year and these awesome blooms.



I've got a lot to do today so I'm gonna keep this short.

Hoping you all have a wonderful day and a great weekend.