Workin' On A Little Green

As I have mentioned before, I am the daughter of a landscaper. That being said, I feel the need to clarify things just a bit. Although I am the daughter of a man who has a wealth of information about growing things & although I am the daughter of a man who has a wealth of skills regarding the maintenance of plants, I do not possess this same knowledge or skill. It has something to do with the fact that my dad does not like working with a whiny teenage girl who doesn't like to get dirt under her fingernails. That's why I never mowed grass until I had my own house.
Anyway, we have this yard now & it needs a whole lotta something. Mike isn't much of a yard man. He prefers working with wood. And I love the things he makes when he's working with wood. So I usually just leave him alone with the wood & try to tackle the yard stuff the best I can. But he is very good to let me borrow his great muscley arms when I need them for tasks like edging the sidewalk & digging big holes. He's good at that kind of stuff.
Before I got into making any major changes or planting anything new or big, I decided to embark upon a couple of little projects just to build my confidence a bit. Here are some pics of my little confidence boosters:
My Aunt Ruth & Uncle Allan gave us these geraniums sometime around Mother's Day. It's been over a month, they've been transplanted & left out in the elements. I have even watered them & they are still alive! They are no longer blooming, but at least they are not shriveled up & dead. I count that as a success.

This a is start of basil. I bought a little basil growing kit at the neighborhood yard sale at my brother's. These little dudes are growing from seed & they don't know it yet, but they are destined to end up in some wonderful Tomato Portobello Mushroom Bruschetta before the summer is out!

And here is Maggie Magnolia all staked up & looking fine nearly a year after she was planted. She is definitely a success so far.

And now, these confidence builders have empowered me to go on & do all of this:

This is a canna. She is growing from a bulb that Mike & I planted several weeks ago. Once these guys get started it is amazing how fast they grow. At some point they will reach about three feet tall & have lovely red & orange blooms. I can't wait!

We have a whole row of them along the east side of the house in the full sun. Look at that garden hose - my wonderful MacGyver hubby hung that up for me. It almost makes me want to wash my car. Almost.

And along the front of the house I did some planting this week. This is a tricky area because it is full shade. We have two large maple trees right in front of the house so this area only gets sunlight in the fall & winter. Not exactly prime growing seasons. So I planted a couple of shade loving ferns.

And several shade loving, easy to grow hostas. I've been told by my parents, several friends, & the cashier at the gas station that hostas are easy to grow. If mine die, I will deny that I ever planted them. I will dig up the remains & throw them over the river bridge. This blog post will self destruct & I will burn my gardening gloves.

Did you hear that hostas? You'd better grow!

Anyway, here's what the little bed looked like after I got done. Here's hoping for the best - root! grow! fill out! bloom! live long & prosper!

Thankfully all of our little green experiments were given to us. The canna bulbs came from my dad & the hostas & ferns came from the G's. Thanks for helping us out! Feel free to come by & water, weed, hold prayer meetings, etc.

If they don't die, I might post a progress update later in the summer. Happy gardening to one & all!