Flowers and Sunshine

I can not believe how fast the last two weeks have gone by. My Mother In Law has started radiation treatments for her bone cancer. We are still waiting on some test results to find out where the other cancer is located. I am taking over their bills until she is better - so the stress is about to drive me nuts. I am so afraid I will mess up their finances but there isn't anyone else to do it. With everything stacking up on me, I decided I needed a little garden therapy. I bought a bunch of flowers and spent a couple of hours outside soaking in the sun. I am still stressed but I now feel like I can handle everything for a little longer.

I started out the morning putting the veggies out in the sun. They have spent everyday this week in the front flower bed. My little patio gets sun for about 4 hours in the morning and turns to shade before noon. They seem happy and strong. I really need to get the veggie beds finished - Maybe this weekend when dear hubby gets home.  

Veggies soaking up some sun.

When we first starting building our house, I changed the layout of the garage, yard, and sidewalk to give me a huge front flower bed. I am now starting to question my great idea. This bed is 12' x 20' and was just sand when we moved in last fall. I added a bunch of compost and tried to get all the rocks out of it. Then I planted my garlic, transplanted several perennials, set up the bird bath, and waited for spring. I have put in a small patio, set out the soaker hoses, and removed more rocks. The garlic is growing like crazy. My garlic usually stays small and I don't even worry about harvesting it. This is my third year and it actually looks great. I am so excited.   


My garlic was bought from the farmer's market last fall but I do not know what they are. The largest plants in the back are elephant garlic.

My Muscari Blue.

I have moved my little blue flowers three times. The flower beds in Florida had lots of little blue flowers when we moved in. The flowers look similar to Texas Blue Bonnets and really reminded me of home. They quickly faded and I forgot about them until the next spring. They flowered again the next year as we were packing to move to New Mexico and I did what every gardener would do. I took them with me. Every spring they show up before any other flowers. I was walking through Lowe's last week and they had my little blue flowers. So I now know their name : Muscari Blue. I wonder if it comes in any other colors? 

The North end of my flower bed. I planted my strawberries around the edge and they are just starting to show.

Today while therapy shopping I spent way too much on flowers. I like to have my flower beds over flowing with plants and right now they look a little empty. I purchased Petunias, Marigolds, Cineraria, Salvia, Verbena, Geranuims, Red Star Cordyline, Gerbera Daisies, Daffodils, and Garden Gnome Iceland Poppies. Plus I already had Day Lillies, Iris, Dahlias, and Lillies. It took me two hours to get everything planted. I guess I will be heading back to the stores to buy some more flowers - O' darn!

By the front door - This area gets more shade than the rest of the flower bed.

By the front door is the Cineraria, Hyacinth, and Daffodils. The plant behind the Hyacinth puts on huge clusters of blue flowers. Once again, I do not know what it is. Maybe when it flowers someone will be able to ID it for me. I still need to get a few more shade plants to fill in but I am waiting for my rhubarb plant to put out some leaves. Last year it was in a pot and was huge. I can not wait to see it this year.
Last year I had my sons each paint a pot for me. I didn't tell them how to paint it. It just had to be bright and have their name and the year on it. This pot was painted by Dallas and he will fill it with flowers himself. Probably Marigolds. He always chooses Marigolds and Dusty Miller.

The small pot is Alex's and I planted a Petunia for him. I am hoping it can flower as fast as he can pick them. He loves to smell flowers but tends to get a little too excited. The larger pot was a gift from my Mom. It had Strawberries in it last year. The berries were moved to the large flower bed and I filled the pot with one Pink and one White Geranium, Pink Verbena, and Red Star Cordyline. I really like the pop of color the flowers bring to the front porch.