Changes!!

A new bed!!! YAY!!!

I finally got my motivation and energy up to fix another bed.  It started with a visit from some neighbors.  While Taylor was talking to his old roommate Trent, who now lives a block away from us, Trent's girlfriend and I spent some time checking out and admiring out respective gardens.  She told me she had purchased some yellow calla lilies like the ones I have (on the Right) and they progressively changed from yellow to orange to red.  I had admired the calla lilies in her yard as I was driving by in the past, and I am super excited about the possibility that my yellow ones may turn the same gorgeous sunset-esque shades of orange and red!! I'll keep you posted on any changes that may happen.
After we spent some time walking around and chatting, we went over to her yard and she showed me a few things. One of my favorite things she has is a very deep red calla lily.  They are so dark they are almost black, and I love them!!  The pic on the R is off the internet, but its exactly like the callas that she has.  She said she got them at the feed & seed in Toledo, so I think I will heading out there soon to see if they still have any.
She had also recently dug up one of her beds, and came out with a lot of iris bulbs, and she gave me a few of them!!!! I am very excited.  They are already done for they year, but they will be great for next year.  I am so excited.  I love irises.  I dont know what color they are, but she said they are bearded irises.  Here is the collection of bulbs she gave me:

I am thinking I will put them in the W facing bed once I get it all set to go.

Ok, back to the new bed.  After months of existing under black plastic, I finally tackled the middle bed under the South facing side of the house. As a reminder, here is what the area looked like on Saturday:

 I spent two hours yesterday pulling the dead grass, and turning half the bed.

When I laid the tarp down, the grass was about 1.5' tall, and so my first task was to pull all that extra length.
Here is what it looked like after getting rid of that extra length.

Here is all the junk that I pulled:

 I then spent an hour digging in with my shovel and another little hand tool ( I dont know what its called, its got a flat part on one side, and three-pronged part on the other side).  I got half the bed done before I was too tired and hungry to go on.

Renewed and re-energized I got in there again today, finishing up with the turning.  Here is the finished bed, all fresh and ready for new flowers :)

Here is the pile of roots I got out of there:

Once that was done, I rearranged the pots on there again, only adding a few in.  I put the others elsewhere in the yard.  I also planted one of the yellow calla lilies (the other is in a pot).  I dug up a sad little calla lily that was hiding under the hydrangea and planted it as well.  I guess I need to get to the store now and find some more  plants to put in this bed :) Yay!!

I put the white calla lilies on the Right, the yellow on the Left.  The Rose of course is in the middle ( I didnt want to mess with it, I am hoping it will bloom this year, last year it was only one 6" little stem)

In the pots, we have a Dahlia and a mauve calla lily on the Right, the Canna Lily in the middle behind the Rose and another Dahlia on the left.

Quick side note, last time I mentioned it, I didnt have a good pic of the Canna Lily, but I took one yesterday, so here it is:

Before and afters of the new bed:

In other news, my corner bed is doing great!! There are now three poppies blooming, two yellow and one white, and the alyssum and petunias are looking gorgeous!  I plated two freesia yesterday, they are in the back along the house, one purple one red.  The tigridas are still coming up, right now just look like long stalks of thick grass, but I am closely watching them to see what happens.  I think the sunflowers that got moved over here are going to be of the shorter variety, which is good, I dont want to have to put stakes in around this bed. 

 I love how the poppies are coming up amid a bed of white Alyssum!! Very Wizard-of-Oz-ish.  If you remember the scene where they are running across the field to get the the emerald city, and it starts to 'snow' and they all pass out from the poppies, the white Alyssum makes me think of the snow with pops of color from that scene.  I dont think I could have done it better if I had planned it that way :)

The red freesia:

 

I did discover a funny thing when I was digging up the calla lily under the hydrangea.  underneath it was a whole mess of tiny bulbs, and a few large ones.  I have never seen what a calla lily bulb looks like, but it seemed like there were far too many of these to be related to calla lily.  I am not sure yet what I will do with them. I'm sure I'll plant them somewhere, but I dont know where yet.  First I think I need to figure out exactly what they are:

Or, maybe I'll just plant them somewhere and see what comes up :)

I have not mentioned much about the roses up until now.  Three of the five rose plants are now blooming!!! I want to dedicate my next post just to roses.  There is too much to try and combine it.  So keep checking, I have some gorgeous pictures of roses to share!!!

So much work to do...

I have been putting off the obvious things that I need to do.  Namely, get this black tarp up and turn the bed:

(from 7.16) I just keep adding pots to it right now, to get that feeling of having done something, while still avoiding what actually needs to be done.  There are two new lily pots I added recently.  The one in the very front on the L on the piece of wood, which is a calla lily of an amazing color, sort of dusky purple, I hope it gets a new flower soon so I can show you.  The big green leaves in the maroon pot is new as well (to the Left of the Dahlia on the far R), it is, of course, another lily, a Canna Lily. Not blooming yet, but hopefully soon.
Along with this spot, I need to tackle the entire west wall!!! So overwhelming!

Ugh.
I also need to get in and dig up the rounded corner I want:

Oh. My. Gosh.  SO MUCH WORK TO DO!!! I want to spend this entire weekend in the yard.  On the other hand.  It would be no fun to get it all done at once.  The bit by bit is more fun, right?

In the meantime, the rest of the yard is doing amazing things!! It is growing and blossoming like CRAZY!!!

 Sunflower row, before and after!! (6.21 and 7.27)

 The Pocket before (6.21)

and after (7.27)

See the passion flowers on the Right?

here they are today!
















Where the bush used to be, the beginning.
(I think this bed needs a better name....ideas?)







And now!

Under the living room window:

On the left we have snapdragons, wave petunia and begonia!






 








and on the right the Tigridas are coming up, as sunflowers and sweet peas head towards the sky

An intimate look down Sunflower row in the very beginning.  Its amazing those tiny little leaves turn into huge sunflowers! (6.21)

And oh how they have grown! One month later...

I have made a few other small additions recently, and the roses are starting to bloom!! These things and more are coming up :) ( I feel like I should cut to a commercial here or something...)

Where no bed has ever been before

Along the South fenceline I have this wonderful fantasy of a brand new bed.  Nice full bushes (think hydrangea, prius bushes, day lilies of various colors), a beautiful climbing rose crawling along the fence, calla lilies and the like.
On July 2 I took one small step towards this fantasy bed, creating 5 small rectangles of beds and put in them a few things I gathered from my mom's and Malika's yards.
I really find it to be very satisfying creating new beds where grass and weeds were before.  Its very cathartic, pulling the grass off the top, especially when there is a great weight of stress on my shoulders.  Pulling the grass, getting the shovel in there, around and under the roots, and pulling the root balls up and out and tossing them aside. I find myself feeling much lighter when I am finished.  I lose myself in what I am doing, my focus is entirely on the task at hand, and by the end, whatever I was worried about before has been put into perspective or entirely forgotten.

Here is the start to the first bed.  Grass pulled, and the hole has been started.  I wish I could remember what this plant is.  Mom? Malika? any help here?













The new bed! 

With beautiful blooms!! Taken July 21st (with a tiny basil plant from mom I put in)

Pre shots of the other small plots I made

And after 3 hours of work....

Looking down the line before and after:

Unfortunately they are not doing much now, I wish I had some beautiful blooming pics to show you, but they just need time now to grow.  Two of them are calla lilies, and will probably bloom next year.
However, I did add some other gorgeous flowers to a couple of them, which I will unveil soon! :)