My gardens…right now

Since it has been such an early and warm spring (today was around 80 I think!), everything is way ahead in our yard. 
Behold the centaurea, already in bloom on May 3rd:


And the bleeding heart:

Variegated false Solomon’s Seal:

And all my little plants that I winter sowed this year:


It is an exciting time of year!  I ordered some bare-root plants and bulbs for the first time this year and I’m looking forward to those coming up and filling in the bare spots where they are planted.  Every year I plan (and plant) more and more, which of course adds up to more and more work to get the gardens prepared and maintained, but I think gradually I’m getting smarter about it too.  Our local compost site offers free wood chips, which I made use of liberally last year, and that reduced my weeding dramatically last year.  This spring I’ve noticed that they are breaking down beautifully in my beds so I’ve added and will continue to add another layer to those beds that need it.
I think one reason I love gardening is that I can be outside with the kids and be there for them, yet be doing something relaxing and beautifying at the same time.  That isn’t always the case.  :)
And that’s my garden right now. 

Garden plans

As we’ve been having a really really early spring here, I’ve been having fun gardening a little earlier than I normally would be able to.  Although I haven’t planted anything  new yet, I’ve been moving around existing perennials as they come up to new locations.  I seem to do this every year as I find out just how the plants like or do not like the different parts of our yard.  We have a mixture of full sun, part sun, and mostly shade so I have places for almost everything though I struggle with the shade areas. 
I had a lot of time on my hands this winter while I was on bedrest for over 6 weeks (subchorionic hematoma with baby #3), so I drew up some garden plans for the flower beds we have in our yard.  I have modified them slightly as memory didn’t quite serve me correctly in the dead of winter on some plant placements, but this is what a couple of them looked like:


The above is the front of our house.  My very elementary sketching and scribbling would probably be difficult for anyone else to decipher, but it is a huge help for me when it comes to organizing plant heights and colors, etc.  All the circles with number correspond to a “key” that I have written out on another page of this notebook. 


This one doesn’t have as many plants so I was able to write the names of the plants on the same page.  We’re actually incorporating a rain barrel into this flower garden so I’m going to have to do some rearranging, but most of the plants have not been planted yet (I ordered a few and am  moving a few from elsewhere in the yard to this flowerbed) so it isn’t a big problem. 

Not very professional I know, but for my purposes right now they work pretty well.  And really, I do have better handwriting than that…I didn’t plan to publish it for the world to see at that point in time!! 

I’m looking forward to my gardening this summer!  I’ll probably do some more posts on my gardening trials and errors as I’m sure there will be plenty of them! 

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Colors from nature

Colors from nature are so soothing!  A while back I found these templates on the Coffeeshop Blog and since my sweet husband got me Photoshop Elements, I was able to use them to get some color palettes from pictures I have taken of my flower garden.  I think it just makes it more interesting to bring the colors from right outside the house into the house.  Now, this would definitely not be as colorful at this time of the year, but maybe for a white/brown/neutral palette?  Hmm. 

Since I'm on a purple kick, I'll start with this one:

Then this:

 

More fall toned:

This one is not technically from outside the house--it is my sister's wedding bouquet:

The sky's the limit!  I tried to find some with more blue in them but I didn't have any on my computer.  Now I don't imagine all of these colors would necessarily look good on a wall, but it is definitely fun to play around with them!

I've been rather obsessed with color at the moment...can you tell?


Blessings,
Elizabeth

What I'm thinking of today...

As I look out my window at the dreary winter brown and white, I dream of this:

viabluehourstudio.blogspot.com

This:

via thisoldhouse.com

And this:

via gardenvisit.com

And I couldn't resist thinking of these fresh from the garden:

via yougrowgirl.com

It's getting to be that time of the year when seed catalogs arrive and dreams begin for a summer of color and flavor!  I'll be checking plant books out from the library and making flower bed plans in the next few weeks.  I'm excited!

Blessings,
Elizabeth