Blooming

I am so embarassed that I've neglected my blog (and reading yours) for more than a month.  In my defense, I have been working a lot of hours, and anyone who has worked part time retail knows that if you can get extra hours, you take them, because you never know when hours will get cut.  So, I've been working a lot, which has helped pay the property tax bill, and has kept Tallulah and I fed.  Also, it has allowed me to indulge my current passion: gardening.

Last year's garden was a huge disappointment, mainly my fault. I was pretty lonely and depressed last year, what with money troubles, a job that sucks, a demoralizing job hunt, a problem roommate, and a lot of difficulties acclimating to all the changes that I had made.  So, I didn't plant all of my seeds or bulbs, and really didn't take very good care of what I did plant.  Last year was also a bit of an experiment in gardening. I'm pretty much a novice gardener, and the climate here is not what I am normally accustomed to, so what I did do was pretty much trial and error. I figured out what works, and what ultimately turns out to be a waste of time and money.

 

This year, life is easier. I think the worst is over, and once again, I'm looking forward to the future. My new attitude is apparent in my garden, because, well, I've gone hog wild.  In the past couple of months, I've planted 14 rose bushes, bougainvillea, three hydrangea bushes, 250 gladiolus, ranunculus, jasmine, more amaryllis, gardenia, larkspur, sweet alyssum, California poppy, four o'clock's, nasturtium, wildflowers, stocks, freesia, bleeding heart, lily of the valley, hosta, lavender, hollyhock and zinnia. Still to be planted this week: zucchini, bell pepper, cherry tomato, green onion and carrot; also foxglove, peony, carnation, dianthus, lupine, johnny jump up, and sweet pea. Whew!

 

Most everything is either just recently planted, or the seedlings are still too tiny to photograph, but I do have a few things that I either planted early, or bought plants (as opposed to seeds or bulbs) from Lowe's:

This is just one of the six sections in this planter, filled with gladiolus.  I can't wait for them to bloom. I've planted mixed colors with no discernible pattern, either to the colors, or to arrangement. 

 

 

 A couple of the amaryllis have bloomed already. Still waiting for the other four:

I don't know what this ground cover is (my friend-neighbor-gardener transplanted a bunch of these from his own garden), but I love the periwinkle colored flowers:

My little bougainvillea looks kind of sad right now.

The flowers look pretty though. And it will get big soon enough. In full bloom, it will be gorgeous!

These are wild roses in my backyard. I debated with myself over taking them out, but I decided to give them another year. I gave them rose food when I planted the other rose bushes in January.

Right now, the wild roses have about 200-300 buds on them. Only one has bloomed.

All of the rose bushes I planted have buds on them, even though every bush is still a foot tall or less.

It sounds silly, but ever since I read the Nancy Drew mystery The Password at Larkspur Lane, I've wanted to grow larkspur. I've gotten my wish.

These freesia smell heavenly, as do the dianthus and the lavender.

Ranunculus and alyssum under the Charlie Brown tree.

I know I probably sound like a dork, being so excited about this, but, in case you haven't noticed, I just adore flowers, and have always wanted to be able to scatter bouquets of fresh cut flowers around my house. I am so looking forward to everything being in bloom, hopefully most everything at once, so I can share pictures of the entire outside.  So, I'm crossing my fingers that everything grows and that this Moose doesn't dig everything up:

She is awfully sweet, and the training classes I've been taking her to are doing a lot of good, but Good Lord, she can be destructive when she digs!

I hope everyone is having a great week.  Hours at work have been cut (See! What did I tell you?), so I'm back to blogging more often.  Hope to read some of the posts that I've missed on your blogs, and am working on a couple of posts for this week.

Thanks for your visit. Feel free to leave a comment; I love reading them!!