Gardening Thoughts

My sister told me today that she is really sending me 350 iris. Wow! Plus daylilies! I am SOOOOO lucky! Now that my bed is ready, I better start figuring out a plan.

Here is a picture of the iris that is on the way.

Plus, I recieved an email from Breck’s this morning, as if I needed prodding!  Have just spent the last hour researching early blooming bulbs versus mid and late season bloomers. What a lovely way to enjoy a cup of coffee!

Here are some of the ones I am thinking about:

Snow Crocus – always an exciting thing to see at the end of a long dreary winter!

Quail Daffodils – 16-18″ tall and a mid-bloomer

Apple Blossom Tulips – these looked just yummy to me!  20-24″ mid to late Spring

Azure Allium – 18-22″ tall with  2-3″ blue spheres on top! Blue pom poms just look fun to me. I think they may look awesome with yellow daylilies.  It is ab early summer bloomer.

I am checking to see when the bloom times are for the daylilies and iris, then I can plan to my heart’s content. I heard a rumor that my mom is rooting some hydrangeas! Both blue and white varieties!  I will save a spot for those little darlings should they make it.

Now, the side garden is all dug up. The dirt looked really much better than I was expecting. No huge rocks or problems became apparent either during our dig. I wonder how I should treat it until these new gift bulbs get here? They will be her mid-October.  Then I can cover with mulch.

We are moving Nov. 19th adn will have loads of cardboard which I hear worms adore!  I planned on putting that down over the areas that are not planted then placing mulch on top of that. I think I can do newspapers too. What about until then? We are talking about less than two months.  I don’t want to pile mulch on, then have to take it off to plant, then place cardboard and then mulch. Am I asking too much? Will I get weeds growing before the gift bulbs arrive? Plus I don’t know exactly when the Breck’s bulbs will arrive either. Hmmm.

Maybe I should go visit Roundtree Plantation which is one of my absolute favorite ever gardening centers? They will know what I should do.

Side Yard Renovation

So, my sister is donating 300 iris bulbs and daylilies to me!  Well, actually she is sending me about 150 which is totally amazing! She had a few extra in her yard and wanted to do a vast plant removal. Lucky me!  Thanks sis!

Look how lovely they will be!

Mom is coming to visit in October and will be delivering the goodies, so I started thinking about where these will actually go. I mean, I am not in this house yet!  The side yard will be the perfect place to see them from inside and each time we come and go from our house we’ll enjoy them. So, side yard it is.

I sprayed the yard twice with ULTIMATE DEATH SPRAY! I have Bermuda grass growing in the patch to the left of the driveway.

Here it is dead.

Bridget wearing her lovely safety glasses with the Mantiss tiller. I have seen commercials for this and coveted it like crazy! You can rent this for $37/day at Home Depot and satisfy that craving. It was great, though a bit more difficult than the infomercial looked. Ben and I completed the job in 2 hours. I tilled the area twice and we used a rake on it to get large grass clumps and rocks out.

Ben worked so hard on this project with me!

Next we’ll lay plastic over the top and weight it with bricks until we move in. Then I will remove the plastic and lay down cardboard, which I understand the worms LOVE. Worms are good things to have in a garden.

So, we returned the tiller and it was a nice surprise that we only were charged the minimum charge of $26.  I am hooked and will go rent one again when I need it. So easy and quick.

Check out my post about all the pretty flowers that are being considered.