Yes, welcome to my Garden Party! So glad you could stop by today and I hope you’ll make yourself at home. You might not know this, but as much as I love to decorate, gardening is right up there for me too in things I enjoy doing and I love to grow pretty flowers. I’ve got a pretty good green thumb, although I’ve managed to lose a few here and there too, but right now is a good time to show off what’s blooming.
We’ve just had a nice rain for the last 2 days, so everything is looking so green and lush (and a little windswept too, but that’s OK). I started all of my beds 3 years ago when we moved to Birmingham, so they are finally coming along and looking good. This bed has an Endless Summer hydrangea, underplanted with hostas and I always add pretty impatiens to the front that peek out over the edging.
I have always, always loved impatiens. They are probably my all time favorite flower to grow.
These Endless Summer hydrangeas are doing well and if they bloom like they did last year (which they are covered with blooms now), they will be busting out in just a few weeks. You can see that they will be a nice deep blue.
This little bed has evolved over the last 3 years and almost nothing made it from what was originally planted. I can tell you that if you’re looking for a good shrub to add in your beds, that Spirea that lines the fence is a good one. It is a gorgeous shade of lime green with little pink blooms in the spring. I planted 3 of them three years ago and they have really grown. Unfortunately, all the other perennials I planted in this bed did not make it for the long haul, so I’ve had to replace them in the last couple of years.
I added mostly dianthus and I hope they all make it.
This is a spiderwort that my mom shared from her garden and it does well.
Those purple sage are newly planted this year. You can see the delicate pink flowers on the spirea. I love this shrub & will definitely plant more of them.
This hot pink dianthus I just planted this year and it’s doing well.
Here’s that $4 birdbath I found a couple weeks ago, looking right at home here in this bed. Found the glass ball last year at a sale and I love it in the water.
Closeup of the spirea and my iron armillary.
The glass ball just sits in the birdbath.
These dianthus were planted last year and have grown a lot. If you’d like to see how these beds have evolved in the last 3 years, you can go here and take a look. And this next area by our front sidewalk is where I built a stone wall all by myself and that’s on the link too.
Moving on to the bed beside our front sidewalk. This bed was full of overgrown boxwoods when we moved in and I knew I had to work on it, so I built this little stone wall out of paver stones from Lowes and planted it with knock-out roses and Dwarf Mock Orange shrubs which have done pretty well. I was featured with this project in the Birmingham News 2 years ago and that was fun.
The double-knockouts have done well for me too.
This urn sits a the end of the stone wall and I just planted it with some cheapie annuals.
Mulching with dark mulch makes any bed look better, I think. Found that armilary at a yardsale a couple years ago for $10. I’m always on the lookout for more garden stuff.
And of course, there are a few bunnies in my garden. I’m sure you are shocked to hear that! 🙂
Down by the mailbox, I added a new perennial purple verbena this year. I hope it does well here. I had some of this planted in my other bed up by the fence and it almost took over the first year. Then, for some unknown reason, it just completely died. Plants are hard to figure out sometimes, but I sure love to watch them grow. Flowers just add so much to the landscape and I enjoy walking outside to see them blooming this time of year.
This clematis is 3 years old and has the prettiest blooms every spring. Too bad they don’t last longer.
Purple verbena up close.
I had tried to figure out what to plant down by the mailbox, since it gets full sun, so I decided on this Miss Huff lantana which is supposed to be really hardy and drought tolerant and hopefully it will get big and fill out. I planted 3 of them. Most of my garden is pinks, blues & purples (my fave colors in the garden), but since I needed something here that is tough, I decided I could stand some orangey yellow down here.
So, how about you? Have YOU been digging in the dirt this spring and how is it looking? Share with everyone by adding your garden to Mr. Linky and add a link back to THIS post so everyone can find our party. I can’t wait to visit everyone’s garden too.
Happy May, ya’ll!
Don’t forget the rules on how to play with Mr. Linky. Go here if you need to learn how to do a permalink and don’t forget to add a link back to MY post here so others can find the party.
Powered by… Mister Linky’s Magical Widgets.
I cheated a little….haven’t had time to tweak my garden/yard much this spring so I linked to my front yard last April….hope that’s okay!
I’ll be e-mailing you soon about my bedroom update….and hopefully a trip up your way is not too far off!
Love ya,
Judy
I’ll have to wait until later in May to post my picture (in other words..I need to weed first.)
But I have to ask? Where, oh where do you get that beaut-i-ful dark mulch? I WANT SOME.
I did post a while back on How to get your kids to weed. I’ll try to find the link and come back later.
Great pictures. Very inspiring!
Love your garden. I’m going to have to get some spirea–It’s beautiful. I wanted to participate today, but by the time I finally went out to take pictures this afternoon, it started raining. Oh well, it is great fun to look at what beautiful things everyone else has.
You have a beautiful garden! Great pictures!
Love the lantana! You all are probably a little ahead
of us midwesterners….will share in a week or so….
thanks for doing so Rhoda!!!!! love, kelee
I’d love to see your garden!
Happy May, Rhoda!
I just took pix of my clematis, too 🙂
GORGEOUS garden. Loved the hostas. I miss the garden I had when I owned my house.
Now I’m in a high rise. I’d have a garden this year, but I’ll be leaving here in the next month or so for an extended stay up north.
I guess when I settle down up north I can play in the dirt.
Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your garden.
Rhoda.. I love how you set up Mister Linky so that the sights we’ve already visited aren’t highlighted any longer. This makes it so much easier and ensures us that we’ve gotten to see everyones post. Now I can honestly say I got to see all that participated. Thanks again for hosting this fun garden party.. I’m gonna be a busy bee working on all the new ideas I got from everyone!
Hugs,
Debbie
Rhoda, I Absolutely love your blog and your garden is totally wonderful! I’ll be back, joined you as a follower! Hey, I’m celebrating Mother’s Day on my blog this week…deadline to enter is Mother’s Day at midnight, PDT. Please feel free to drop over and enter…there are a variety of gifts I’m giving away and there are two different ways you can enter! AuRevoir~ ~CC Catherine from “Catherine de th`e Cup”
I don’t have any photos to share yet, but I just wanted to say what a beautiful garden you have! Hydrangeas are my favorite, mine are about to open up any day now!
What a great idea! Your garden looks lovely, thank you for sharing:)
Hi Rhoda,
I guess I’m what you would call fashionably late to the party:)
Hi Rhoda,
Your garden is stunning. I remember the post about the garden wall and then your town paper’s well-deserved article on it.
I know you’re quite humble in saying that you’re “no expert,” but I really hope that I can twist your arm for some advice. I’m hoping to do a container garden on my balcony but I have no idea how to put together the colours. Would orange and red flowers clash, etc? I was originally thinking of doing all white flowers, but I thought that it might look too boring. What’s your opinion?
Thank you very, very much! Maybe next year I will be joining your garden party!
Jo Draven
your garden looks just wonderful!
Wow…your garden looks wonderful! I love your garden. I'm going to have to get some spirea it is beautiful. Thank you for hosting this glorious garden party. My husband and I love this garden party. Thanks for letting me join your party. I'm so enjoying all the pretty gardens.
Great pictures and awesome green thumb.