Spring Has Sprung

If you know anything about me then you know I love being outside!  I love everything (pretty much) about the outdoors.  Fishing, four wheelers, entertaining...if it's outside I'm more than likely enjoying it!  Two things that I have grown to love about the outdoors...flowers and plants!  A love I definitely got from both parents!  I can remember my mom always being outside in the flowerbeds and my dad in the past few years has gotten into gardening and farming.  After our wedding (almost 2 years ago!!!  WOW!) I became slightly obsessed with hydrangeas.  We bought us two blushing brides that were gorgeous!!  Our dogs also thought they were gorgeous...delicious!  So off to the store to buy more and more and more...I was heartbroken...like, seriously I probably shouldn't have been so upset but I was just so excited about having my own hydrangeas and showing them off.  How dare the dogs ruin them!!  :)  We now have 5 hydrangea plants growing in our backyard!  They bring me joy!  I love looking at them everyday to see if and how much they have grown.  I have seriously babied them!!  We have a very lovely wire "fence" around them to keep the 4 legged monsters away!  It might not be a pretty sight but it has worked!!  We also added 7 hostas plants to the same bed last year that have amazed us this year!  Curt bought those for me last year from Lowe's.  I sent him by himself to get those.  Enough time passed for him to get there when I got a phone call.  "Um, they have some of those things you were talking about but they don't look good and they are only like $2."  Me:  "Get them!  They might not look good now but they will next year!"  He bought all 7 and ended up paying only $1 per plant!!  We have both enjoyed watching those grow!!  Then there is my 2011 obsession: Chinese Snowball Viburnum.  I noticed these beauties last year.  Every time we went to Curt's dad's house we had to drive by this one house that had these 20 foot shrubs that looked like huge 

hydrangeas.  I had to know what they were!  I finally found out a couple of weeks ago!  Since then I was on a mission!!  No one I called had any and if they did they were off the truck and in someone else's possession as fast as they were coming in!!  This was not ok with me!  When I get my mind set up something...I usually get it right then.  I'm not very patient!  Last week I located just what I was looking for!!  And not just one but TWO!!  Curt got them planted in the yard on Monday and I already love them!!!  Between those and my hydrangeas I am slowly becoming that grandma that wants you to walk outside with her so she can show you her garden!  Next we have a couple of Knock Out Roses that have really surprised us!!  When I got these last year they were so little.  Like, just a skinny single stalk.  I wasn't so sure that they would make it.  How wrong was I?!?!  It was suggested that I cut them back in January so that they would come back a little fuller this spring.  Wellll, we didn't do that because honestly I really didn't think about it so we will definitely have to remember that for this next January!!  Now on to something else we did last year.  MONKEY GRASS!  To the right of our house we put down bricks.  This is where the dogs hang out during the day since

it's mostly shaded.  This is also where they liked to dig!!  The brick was our solution to keep them from digging!!  We ended up having a few open spots up against our house and the neighbors house.  How were we going to fill those spots??  You guessed it!!  Money grass is a great filler and it's really coming in full right now!!  The ultimate goal is to have all the bare spots full of money grass!!  I think it will look really pretty around that whole area once that happens!  Next is the front yard!!  I've had a real bad attitude towards the front flower bed ever since we got married!!  When this house was built the landscape budget was obviously a very

small one!  We recently had a guy come by the house to give us an estimate!  He had some great ideas.  We are widening and lengthening the front flower bed and they have already come by to cut away the sod that's in the way!!  I can't wait to share the finished product with y'all!!  In the mean time...minus the hideous plants that were in there, you can at least get an idea of the shape of the bed!!  And last but not least there is the clematis!  Wasn't sure if this little joker was going to make it back this year or not but he did and he's gorgeous!!!  He is going to make our mailbox look so pretty!!!