Rain

We have a slow gentle rain falling. I am so thankful for it. It is the first good rain this month of March. After we had the chimenea fire going last night, I went in and made a big pot of chicken leek soup. So delicious. Thinking about visiting the Dallas Arboretum soon.

A Little Cold Front Moved In

Have a small fire going.  A cold front moved in yesterday - in the 40s today also. 

Photos of white Encore Autumn Moonlight Azalea

I have 3 white Autumn Moonlight Encore Azaleas.

Clematis and Strawberries

Grandaughter picking the first strawberry. She said it was delicious!

Strawberry ready to pick

2 more ready. 

Pink Clematis bloomed 

more blooms

White Clematis. I planted 3 Indian Hawthorne around the Clematis. I read that their roots like to be shaded.

Not a very good photo but this is Purple Oxalis - Oxalis regnellii Atropurpurea. I planted these last fall in the shade part of the garden.

A Windy Spring Day...Please Send Some Rain

3 Junipers that I dug up from the backyard and will grow in contains in front.
  They are in temporary pots now.

Pink Clematis buds

Red tulip on front yard by rock. Previous owner of
 house planted it.

Red tulip under tree.

Tigger 

Double Red Knockout

Row of Double Red Knockout in front yard

Fence we put up. Front patio area

Silvery Sunproof Liriope... new growth emerging

Crimson Pygmy Barberry along with Snapdragons.
 They'll be yellow when they bloom.

Tigger on the round rock

Front flower bed with Crimson Pygmy Barberry, Purple Oxalis, Silvery
Sunproof Liriope and Snapdragons.

Front flower bed

Scarecrow in veg garden

Canna

I forgot to mention I bought a "Picasso" canna. It is a dwarf canna, yellow flowers with tiny red spots. I have never tried to grow a canna. It will be planted in front by the little green decorative fence that is to serve as the entryway gate when the living fence is grown.

Rose bed

Future rose bed with daylilies and some other assorted perennials. The purple thing
 is our well house cover.  The pink Abraham Darby will look good in front of this.
 It was purple when we bought the house. I thought I'd leave it that color. It's definitely
 not my favorite color. This photo was shot before I planted the David Austin roses.
 At the left end I planted the William Shakespeare that is a purplish red color. 
I thought it would show up with the Pink Double Knockouts as a backdrop
 for it. In the middle section I planted a dark pink Portmeirion which will
 have  a bright pink Queen Elizabeth grandiflora, which gets really tall, 
 as it's backdrop as well as  the purple well house. The photo at the top
 of my blog, of pink roses, is a "Queen Elizabeth" from my previous house.
 Then over to the far right (which you can't see) is where I put the Abraham Darby,
 which will also have the well house as a backdrop. There will be a path in front of
 this also. On the left side of the well house I want to plant some tall Hollyhock
 called "Summer Carnival Rosy Pink" I want to underplant the Abraham Darby
 with dark purple Salvia called "Blue Bedder"  Here's a list of the names
 of the newly acquired and planted daylilies put in the rose bed: 
Dorothy Lambert, Happy Returns (I prefer this one over Stella d' Oro)
 Janice Brown, Moonlit Masquerade, Navajo Princess,
  Old-Fashioned Maiden, Red Volunteer, Russian Rhapsody,
 and Lady Georgia. 

Camellia and Azalea bed

Still have daffodils. They are so cheerful! In the background
are Firehouse Dwarf Nandina's.

Row of Double Pink Knockout roses. There will be a path along the front of these.

Camellia and Azalea bed. You can see one white flower on the azalea.

Right side of rose bed with vegetable bed to the far right.

Encore azalea "Autumn Moonlight"

Vegetable plot.  This photo was taken before I planted the vegetables.

A Few Veggies In

Went ahead and planted a few vegetables - tomatoes, chard, spinach, strawberries, corn, garlic, onions, and bell peppers. I also planted a few marigolds in the vegetable patch. Later on I will plant from seed - okra, small and large sunflowers, nasturtium, basil, rosemary, and zinnia.

GARDEN PLANT CHECKLIST

I was going to add a few more "Before" photos, but they look so bad I thought I better wait until I have some of the "After" photos to go with them. My hubby and I drove today 130 miles (each way) to Chamblee's Rose Nursery in Tyler, Tx to buy David Austin roses. Nobody in our area had the ones I wanted. I purchased 2 Abraham Darby's, William Shakespeare 2000, another Graham Thomas ( I need two, one for each end of the clothesline) and Portmeirion. I can't wait for their wonderful aroma to fill my backyard. I have not completed the garden areas yet, still more grass and weed pulling.
So, to recap - when we purchased the property there were two Sweet Gum trees, one Maple, two Crepe Myrtles (one of which I removed because it was planted in the shade and too close to the house) and two Pampass Grass plants (which I removed). The following is a list of what has been added.
35 Elaeagnus
2 Natchez Crepe Myrtles
4 Double Red Knockout Roses
7 Double Pink Knockout Roses
2 Clematis
3 Crimson Pygmy Barberry
1 Queen Elizabeth Rose
2 Graham Thomas (David Austin English Rose)
2 Abraham Darby """""
1 William Shakespeare 2000 """""
1 Portmeirion """"""""
3 Lynwood Gold Forsythia
1 Flowering Quince Japonica
8 Camellia
1 Varigated Privet
5 Azalea
5 Dwarf Nadina "Firehouse"
4 Indian Hawthorne "Snow"

The other half of my backyard will have to wait until next year due to the expense of landscaping. I still want to try to add some Hostas and Hydrangeas when they become available. Also I brought my daylilies and iris with from my previous house and planted them last fall. I am eagerly awaiting for their lovely blooms. (plus I don't know what is what - I didn't tag anything- moving - what a pain that is). I also ordered a few more daylilies and they just arrived the other day. I bought a lot of perennial flower seeds. I have lots of work ahead.

Pulling Weeds

I pulled weeds and dug, pulled weeds and dug.....One new flower bed is ready and the vegetable plot is almost ready. I planted some strawberry plants, new daylilies, onions and garlic. My local nursery doesn't have Abraham Darby (David Austin rose), sooo I may have to order it on-line. I did buy Graham Thomas (a yellow David Austin rose) to plant out by my clothes line (I'm not using it for clothes). This rose likes to climb so I thought it would make a good arbor. I read that strawberries do well amongst the daylily's and I planted garlic and onion around were the rose will be. We will see how this goes. I bought an assortment of tomato plants, red bell pepper, spinach, and corn plants. I also bought lots of flower seeds.

Nandina's and Future Roses (I Can't Wait)

I spent the last two days digging up grass and weeds, not a pretty sight, so I'll not show any photos of that. Beauty will follow in a few short months though. I planted 7 pink double Knockout roses in the back along  our chain link fence that faces a road and then started on the front along a chain link fence that faces an overgrown field (that's not ours, but wish it was) with 2 double red Knockouts and will follow with 2 more. I then planted 7 dwarf Nadina's (Firehouse) around a flowerbed in back which I started last fall when we first moved to the house. Currently it has yellow daffodils blooming. The bed also contains daylily's and  iris. I put a few stones in for a path edged in Liriope. Keep in mind there is still a lot of work to do on this bed.  Then I started the outline (more digging, weeding and pulling grass out) for the future rose garden that will have David Austin roses one of which will be the glorious Abraham Darby. This will be situated in front of the purple well house. So lots of work to do! Last weekend my husband started working on our future vegetable plot. We've never grown vegetables - so.......we will see.  I better get off this computer and get at it.

Dwarf 'Firehouse' Nandina (this photo and below photo)

David Austin Rose 'Abraham Darby' from my previous place (below photo)