weeding, planting, mulching...

The weather has not been very cooperative since the early thaw and warm temps that we enjoyed in March.  Since then it has been rainy, WINDY and cold...dismal.  I don't know about you, but I cannot work outside in high winds...everything gets blown around and it's just a mess.

We managed to buy the mulch, the Boxwoods and even a Redbud tree.  Last week before we went on vacation, we were able to plant a mess of Boxwoods and the tree and cover the area with mulch...then we headed off to Florida.

We flew home yesterday and on our way home, we stopped at Block's Nursery on Eureka Road and Middlebelt; right by the airport.  We picked up flats of Impatiens, a hanging basket of pink Geraniums and three English Lavender plants...more planting in our future, but not the near future since you need to wait until Mother's Day to plant annuals - hopefully by then the threat of frost will have passed and all our other planting will be done.

While in Florida, we made some events in our calendar called "KEEP CLEAR", so that if we are invited somewhere in the next month, we can honestly say that we are busy.  Six weekend days have this notation, so I hope that the weatherman will cooperate and make those days free of rain and wind.

As I've mentioned in an earlier post, we've got company coming and so, we've got to get busy and get to these things...

We have other things we need to complete this year.  Finally finish the scraping, sanding and painting of all the windows in the house...and now it looks like the paint on the eves of the roof need to be scraped again and painted.

Plus, we never got to creating that vegetable garden that we had planned up last year.  The ideas are still flowing about that and these other things are proving to be in our way.

One day...

OH! And I saw this great idea on Pinterest of doing some moss graffiti on our concrete garage wall (outside of course).  But I'd really like to do this.  I found a nice garden-y quote that I printed out and I'll have to stencil on the side of the garage.  I hope it works.  The quote I found was "Gardens are a form of autobiography".  It's short and sweet and to the point.  I like.

a garden is continually changing...

I have a laundry list of things to do this spring, before it becomes too late.  I want to move all the Daffodil's to one area at the front of the property so that it makes more of a statement every spring.

I seem to have some Lungwort plants that could be moved to an area where they will thrive - along with that I have some Pachysandra that I've moved several times and I still don't have the right spot for them.

I want to trim the flowering bushes; Forsythia and Star Magnolia, before they start to build up their buds for the following year.

I need to trim my rose bushes...they are growing like crazy!

We went to Home Depot over the weekend to pick up some mulch, but instead we used our gift card to buy 24 Boxwoods for at the end of the driveway.  I still need plenty more and they are currently on sale for $4 a piece - almost $3 in savings from its normal price.

We went to Kroger to pick up some more gift cards for Home Depot, so we will buy the mulch later this week.  I need to get all the other things accomplished before we put down the mulch.

Every year we put down some mulch since it doesn't seem to last all that long.  This year we are trying to get the place looking presentable because my cousin from Belgium is coming for her first visit at the beginning of June and then we are hosting a "pre-nup party" at our place for our niece Erin and her fiance Chris.  They live out east and it won't be easy for all the Michigan family to attend their wedding in July in Plymouth Massachusetts.

Why did we buy gift cards for Home Depot at Kroger?  If you buy gift cards at Kroger, you get points toward Kroger Fuel.  Right now we are saving $1 per gallon on nearly every fill up by having purchased gift cards over the past month.  During the month of March, you were earning double the points for each gift card purchased.  Every little bit helps.  And, we're kind of double dipping.  We purchase the gift cards using our Speedway MasterCard and earn 10 points per $1 spent.  Once you get to 190,000 points, you get a $200 Fuel Card from Speedway.  We use our MC for all of our purchases and so we earn a $200 gift card on average every 4-5 months.

end of season...

I've noticed that some people cut their hostas (and other plants) down way before now...I happen to like the colors that the hostas turn at this time of the year.  When we start raking in a couple of weeks, the hostas will be much easier to pull out - plus they've had all their nutrients stored (or at least that's what I believe).

In this photo is a Japanese Maple and a Burning Bush...you can hardly tell them apart, they are so close in color right now.

In this shot you see Cosmos in the front, followed by Dahlias, Burning Bush, Japanese Maples (these ones turn orange) and the Magnolia tree.

Finally, these are some nice yellow mums that I had purchased in the spring as a decoration for my brothers 50th Birthday Party that we held at our house.  They added a nice little pop of color in the early spring, when only the early tulips were blooming. 

I replanted them in the front of the house.  The weather was so drought like that I thought they were goners...but they survived and they are blooming!  When the buds start, they are a reddish-orange, but the flowers are a nice bright yellow.

Still need to plant a bunch of bulbs and purchase and plant a bunch of boxwoods...then it's resting time until next February/March.