Spring Flowers - Nature's beautiful reminder of things to come!

It's truly exciting to see how well the flowers you planted or transplanted the previous year have fared. About three years ago we bought our house and with it came some great flowers and tons of mystery plants. The biggest challenge was identifying the plants that were there and then deciding whether they were weeds or not. This meant waiting for blooms or waiting to see what they did.

Some of the plants did not need identifying. For instance, a climbing rosebush that had been planted to close to the house and had been trying to grow behind the siding. I made it a point to transplant as much of the massive plant as possible (A real feat considering the root mass was about the size of three softballs it had been there for so long). Since transplanting it, it has done well in another area of my yard!

Another group of plants that I was pleasantly surprised to find in my flower beds were the tulips; many different colors of tulips.

While the flower beds in the front of my house have been cleaned up and some of these transplanted or split up, my back yard flower bed is still in need of some major attention this year. I had waited a while to do anything with it, mainly keeping an eye on it to see if there is anything else that needs to stay.

(The picture to the right is of the back yard flower bed)

My front flower beds have slowly evolved over the past 3 years. Going from a few tulips, lilies, giving it a good weeding and putting in some cheap solar lights with old mulch in the spring of 2008 (Picture to the left taken in Spring 2008); to the major transformation of this bed that started in the spring of 2009 with splitting and transplanting lilies, then adding landscape fabric and edging. Around the same time I had a seed and plant swap with some family and good friends (Which is great for those of us amature gardeners who have a very limited budget)! You know who you are and thanks to all of you! At last, in the fall of 2009 I had a major pilgrimage to a couple farmers markets and then of course to local stores for perennials when they started going clearance. I managed to find the Giant Hybrid Columbine (Photo at the very top of this blog post shows you what it looks like), Hosta, Pixie Lillies, Blanket Flowers and the Purple Heart.

I also bought a new set of solar lights that looked a little fancier and colorful on sale. (The picture to the right was taken at the end of the summer in 2009, you can see a definite difference)

This year I have already seen amazing growth from the plants I received and bought last year. My sons and I made seed planting a family affair on monday.  I want it to be a learning experience for them and give them the chance to plant them into the ground when it is time.  My youngest was alot more excited about it, but he likes doing anything involving dirt (imagine that, a 5 year old boy that loves dirt ;)  My oldest (who is 8) is a little less patient and would rather get instant results so when we put them where we want them I am sure he'll be more into it.  I'll tell you more about it soon!  I can honestly say that I am excited to see what will happen over the course of the year as I continue to watch the transformation that comes naturally with flowers. I also can't wait to continue the swapping of more seeds and plants with friends and family!

Until next time!

Sincerely,

Khrys @ GreenSpot-On

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