Update On Yard Work

Good Morning! It's a gorgeous morning here at Camellia Cottage! The birds are singing and the sky is blue, and it'll be very hot before we know it, so I need to get outside and back to work. It's hard when I'm sore in places where I'd forgotten there were places!!!

We got one (flower) bed finished yesterday, and another one begun. I'm sorry I didn't get befores, but these beds were in such bad shape, I'm not too sorry! I didn't get nearly everything done I should have last year because my dad was in the hospital a lot and there just wasn't time.

Here are a couple of picture of the (almost) finished front bed, under the living room window >>>

My husband bought the mulch, and got a terra cotta dyed mini bark mulch. It's not what I would have chosen (I like more natural colored stuff), but with the terra cotta colored stepping stones, it really matches the brick around the front porch, so it's all good. This is a fairly large bed, and I need to get in and out to water and maintain the plants, so I really like the addition of the stepping stones.

This is a close up of the rock garden. I want to get some thyme and oregano to plant in among the rocks. There are already heucheras and a few other things in there.

Iris, foxglove and monarda (bee balm). The monarda was dug up from my aunt's yard, so it's a little droopy, but it will be fine when the roots get a taste of good soil and fertilizer!

My friend, Fay, gave me this angel years ago, and I had it out in the back yard, but I love it here now. I just move the trellis here from another spot in the garden this year, and planted a couple of Earnest Markham clematis my mom gave me, and a hyacinth bean on it. What you can't see is that there's a 1 quart capacity hummingbird feeder hanging right above it. Hummers LOVE hyacinth beans! That's the Key Lime Pie Heuchera in the left foreground.

This year I've concentrated on three things:

• Most everything has to be bird, butterfly and/or bee friendly
• Most everything has to be perennial - or comes back year after year
• Many different colors, textures, sizes and shapes of plant matter

My favorite colors of blooms are pinks, blues, purples and whites, but I add a little red, orange and yellows in the mix, too.

Well, I need to get dressed and back out in the yard. Check back in in upcoming days and see what's going on here at Camellia Cottage! Blessings, Becky