Perennials Taking Hold

When we tore out all the old bushes and sidewalk in the front of our house, we knew we'd be left with lots of options for how to fill the space. I don't consider myself a green thumb, but after this year's garden and flower beds, I think I may be changing my mind.
 
I posted early in the spring about the flowers I was contemplating for the front beds. With a few minor tweaks and some fun new finds at the local garden store, I think it's shaping up quite nicely!

 


So you can see the layout of the beds.

Here are the only three annuals I planted for some immediate color and spread. I was afraid my perennials wouldn't be very showy this year...

Petunias...planted a mixed flat this year. Next year I'm going to go with
all dark purple or maybe orange. No light purple, white, pink or red.

 

Hot pink geraniums in boxed planters by the front door. I really like
geraniums in planters. But like I said above, next year no pink.

 

This was a really fun find at the local nursery. The common name is something like
"bat face" since the the Cuphea flower almost look like ears and a little nose.

 
And here are a few of the beautiful things happening right now with my perennials. I can't wait to see what next year has in store since this was just the first year of growth!

Foxgloves. I LOVE these!

 

Delphinium in a beautiful royal blue/purple. Brent picked this and planted it too!


 

We can't live in Colorado and not have the state flower. I also planted a
"lime green" columbine but it doesn't have flowers yet.

 

Another favorite for spread and showy flowers: Coreopsis.
We planted two of these since they look great and eat up space.

 

Salvia. Another Colorado staple. This is one of two we planted. The
first one almost died, but I'm nursing it back to health.

 

Coneflower: I was worried about these babies. They didn't look
great for much of their initial month. Now they're flowering!

 


Hens and chicks. I planted lots of these (along with ice plant) along the borders.

 

This is my very first Brown-Eyed Susan to flower. I notice them all over
Denver right now, so I imagine next year's plants will be much fuller.

Next year my poppies will likely bloom too, but they just weren't developed enough this summer.

I hope you're enjoying some color and flowers this summer!
Karli

Karli's Exterior Project Done...For Now

Ok, so here it is! The big reveal of our exterior project. By now you know all about the tree projects, the trim projects, paint choices and flower bed plans. It all came together in something I am really proud to call ours!

After all the old evergreen shrubs and bushes were removed (and the giant cottonwood stump was ground out), we started planting flowers. Finally, the flower beds are making all that effort worth it! The flowers are blooming and spreading and, hopefully, growing strong roots. I picked mostly perennials so those beds won't require a ton of work to look great year after year. Here are a couple of progress pictures of the beds.


After the sidewalk was poured we had an even larger space to fill next to the driveway.



 

Earlier in the summer, this pic was taken before we put in edging bricks to define the bed. We also planted a couple more things on the left part of the bed.

We picked Sherwin Williams Pewter Tankard for the body and it is exactly what I wanted. While we were painting my sister and brother in law kept calling it brown. I called it gray. PERFECT. I wanted a gray that didn't turn blue or pink. I wanted it to be almost brown.

This shows that side flower bed filled in. The plants are still growing.

We used Sherwin Williams Extra White for the trim for a really nice crisp pop. And then I ordered black shutters from Home Depot, so we didn't even have to paint those.

And I got my lime green door!

The bench mom made looks amazing on the front porch. As do the black chairs I picked up earlier this summer.

Love that bench! You can also see the door better here too.

I can't wait till the flowers fill out a bit more. (And it will be nice when we re-sod the lawn next year)

Here's the full "after" view with the before picture too. What a difference!

We still have all that empty space where the tree stump was. You'll probably see more posts about that next spring!

Just a reminder of where we started. It was all worth it!

Spring Flowers in Bloom

Spring around here is a busy time. In fact there is so much "stuff" to do that there is no time to write about it. And, it is not necessarily something anyone would want to read about or see pictures of anyway!

Regardless, it is past time to "show and tell" something, so here are some photos of spring progress in the yard.

We did a little repair work on the garden shed. If you recall, from an earlier post, we damaged the roof when we took part of the tree down.

We fixed the damage and replaced some shingles.

The Day Lilies are on the east side of the house and love the early morning sun. They seem to grow every day. I shared some with Karli early this spring.

Growing...

Growing...

Blooming yellow (Lemon Lily)

Blooming orange lily

                             
Our flowering crabapple tree is so beautiful in the Spring. But it only blooms for a short time. Enjoy the pink while you can, I guess. 

Close-up of the pink flowers. Too bad the pink goes away so quickly.

As for annuals, I like to keep the colors all unified. This year I only purchased orange marigolds. I planted some in the beds among the rocks and sedum. Here are some views of the yard so far......

Sedum, orange marigolds, mountain sage.

I also plant some of the same orange marigolds in various pots.

This should fill out soon.

On the back deck I included some pots of basil and parsley. Karli has been trying to get me to cook with "real fresh" herbs!

I love summertime and spending time in the yard. I love my flowers! They will grow more beautiful each day. But, by the end of August, I'll be over it and wishing my watering and mowing was done! Go figure!!

Happy yardwork,
Kandy

Day Lily Transplant--Flowers From Home

This last weekend we brought Karli flowers from home. She has always loved the day lilies we have growing on the east side of our house. They mean a lot to mean because they were given to me by my dear friend Kathy. So, how perfect to be able to share them with Karli for her new house.

While Karli and I "did" the Tea, her sweet Daddy dug up the flower bed under her family room picture window to make a perfect new home for these transplants. This area had been filled with a cedar tree and several juniper bushes that got removed on Thursday.


The digging begins



I transported the day lilies in this bucket with plenty of water in the bottom. Here's Karli getting ready to plant in the new space.



I hope Porter doesn't dig these up!

Karli and I did get involved with hauling rocks and pulling up the numerous roots and runners from the evergreens.


Adding some potting soil to Karli's clay soil

They are expecting a big snow this week. I know the new day lilies will just love all that moisture and soon she will have fragrant yellow and orange blooms adorning the back of her house basking in the early morning sun. 

She can look at them and always think of home.


I think they grew in the few days we were visiting!

~Kandy