When we moved into our house in Greenville it had an immaculate yard...full of lush, green plants and colorful flowers. I'm telling you EVERY square inch around the perimeter of our back yard was COVERED in some sort of plant or flower. EVERY LAST SQUARE INCH (in case you didn't quite understand before)!! However, it didn't take long for that to change! You see the lady of the house before us was a master gardener in every sense of the word. She had perennials & annuals every where. I hadn't a clue what those terms meant. There were tulips, roses, amaryllis, Easter lilies, day lilies, wisteria, azaleas, dusty miller, crape myrtle, lily turf, mint, iris, aster, pampas grass, & flowering kale just to name a FEW. (And yes, I did look up the names of the flowers/plants on the internet!) The backyard was just about to come into bloom when we moved in. The man of the house told us "Don't mess with anything...just watch it come to life."
Well, we did just that. It was so completely overwhelming to us, the non-gardeners! It was so very pretty as it all bloomed, but once it was done & the weeds began to creep in Darren & I were left wondering "what now?" We picked weeds. I picked things I thought were weeds, however, I later learned they were "ground cover"...or plants that were SUPPOSED to be there. How in the heck was I to know that?! We changed a few things here & there (mainly me picking the so called weeds), but we pretty much left it as is & tried to maintain what was there.
Now, Darren & I both come from gardening parents. My mom always has nicely manicured flower beds in both her front & backyards. Darren's dad has an extremely green thumb & was the edible crops supervisor for TDCJ for years. He also has a massive garden in his backyard. He can grow ANYTHING! We have given him plants that are on their deathbeds (yes, because of us) & he brings them back to life. So, we really have no excuse. We should, for all practical purposes, be able to handle a little gardening. Yea, not so much! I was even in a Garden Club my first 2 years in Greenville. Did I learn anything?! You betcha! I now know the difference between an annual & a perennial. Still can't grow them, but that's beside the point.
Anywho, after moving into our new house we decided to wait a while before planting anything. I guess we were still recovering from living in flower garden land for the past 5 years!? The house we found had one nice, little flower bed with a few shrubs & a few azaleas already planted in the front yard. The back yard was nice & untouched...think we'll keep it that way for now.
Last weekend we decided to try our thumb at "fixing up" the front flower bed. Maybe it's a sign of the apocalypse or maybe it's a sign of us maturing...okay, I won't go so far as using "us" & "maturing" in the same sentence, so let's go with us getting older...but we were excited. We were both looking forward to doing a little gardening. Say what?! Yea, I know, I was surprised, too!
We took off to Home Depot to check out their flowers & get several bags of bark mulch. We purchased a variety of flowers & plants, gathered 9 bags of bark mulch & were soon on our way. Darren's dad gave us a sago palm, so we had that waiting for us back at home. We were soon up to our elbows in dirt. We dug up one of the shrubs that was in the middle of the flower bed & planted it on the side of the house so that we had a spot for the sago palm. There's no telling if that transplanted shrub will make it or not! We then placed all our new plants & flowers where we wanted them & got busy. We dug holes, added some soil, & placed each plant/flower in it's special new home...praying that it would stay alive long enough for someone to witness our new found hobby. We laid the bark mulch & then watered our new flower bed.
It's been nearly 6 days & so far so good. Everything is alive. Yes, I have remembered to water them (thanks to my mom, of course). I took pics so that I could remember what they looked like when freshly planted & you know, just in case they didn't look that way in a few weeks. I'll keep you posted on the outcome. In the meantime, enjoy the pics of our new little flower garden! :)
Before...
After..
Agapanthus...
Bougainvillea
Caladium
Coleus
Easter Lily
Gerbera Daisy
Persian Shield
Sago Palm
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