New Additions

Clint has been telling me for a couple of weeks that he thought my little garden needed some more flowers.  I thought the patio was quite full, but he thought it could hold a few more so Sunday we went to a different nursery to see what they had.  The had so many flowers to chose from.  We did bring home some more flowers to add to the patio garden.  We now have to little boxes hanging from the railing.  It does look pretty cute.

Hawaii Blue  These flowers are so tiny and unique.  

Blutopia Blue.  These are also some small blue flowers.  Clint loves blue.

Torenia Clown Mix.  These remind me of little bells.  We got some purple and some pink.  They are so pretty and loaded with little buds.  I hope they open soon!

Purple Shamrock.  The little flowers on this one are not that impressive, at least right now.  What I really like about this one is the unique leaves that are such a pretty color of purple.

Bugleweed.  This one is just all around cute.  Its tiny little leaves, tiny little flowers that grow straight up in the middle, so pretty.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing all the pictures on my little garden that seems to be turning into a jungle quite quickly.

Herbs

This is the first time I  have ever tried to grow herbs so I am having a fun time learning about them and cooking with them.  A few of them are still trying to get established in their new homes and I am having to wait for a couple of them to get big enough to use, but the ones that I have been able to use have been really yummy!

Spearmint.  I haven't been able to use this one yet because it is still a little small and doesn't have a ton of leaves yet.

Cat nip.  I planted this one for Lucy.  She could care less and mostly ignores it.

This pot contains chives, rosemary and parsley.  I have used all but the chives from this pot.  They are still a little small.  The rosemary is delicious!

This pot contains cinnamon basil, sweet basil and lemon basil.  I have only used the sweet basil out of this pot, but the others smell so good I can't wait to try them in something.

This one is the apple mint.  I wasn't sure this one was going to make it when I got it, but it has perked up and is going crazy.  I have used this one a couple of times to make mint water and mint tea. UMMMM.  YUMMY!

This one is chocolate mint.  I cannot wait to try this one.  I just planted it yesterday so it needs a little bit to get settled and start putting on a few more leaves but it smell so yummy, just like chocolate mint. 

So, I now you know what is growing in my herb garden.

The Benefits of Having a Flower Garden

Have I mentioned I love my flower garden? One of the reasons I love it so much is because it gives me fresh supply of flowers for my house.


Cheerful little daisies!


Floating begonias

Intorducing the pieces of the whole....

The little pretties that make up my garden.


The gerber daisy. This one is pretty much favorite. It was a splurge because I thought it was beautiful and my Hubby insisted get it.


This one is my bargain plant. They looked a little sickly so were on sale for $0.50 each. I decided to take them home and see if I could nurse them back to health. It has taken them a little bit, but at last a bloom! I think it is a dahlia. I have several colors but the white one is the only one that has bloomed since I have brought them home. I guess the others are still recovering from their traumatic life before I found them.


Begonias. They are going crazy with the flowers.


I am not sure what this one is called. It was given to us as a gift from my father-in-law who does landscaping. I sure do think it is cute though.


Impatience. They are going crazy with the blooms as well although they have their own struggle to overcome, namely a cat, Lucy, who thinks they were planted there for her own personal enjoyment. She chows down on them like there is no tomorrow.


I am not sure what these are called either. It was a gift from my Hubby when I told him I wanted to plant some flowers on the patio. This one was the first member of my little patio garden. They are the most cheerful little flowers ever and stretch to get as much sun as possible. They also close almost all the way up when it gets dark.

So there you have the flower part of my little garden. Next time will be the herb part of the garden.

Evening walks

My sweet Hubby and I have started walks around the neighborhood in the evening and we are having lots of fun and getting to see some different things. The neighbors are all working hard to get their yards all spruced up for the summer an we are enjoying seeing the transformation and checking out all their pretty flowers. As we walk down the street I often catch a whiff of the perfume of a flower. I then start smelling as hard as I can so I can get as much of the scent as I can before we get too far away to smell it any more. (The perfume we wear will never compare to the perfume God gives the flowers.) I like trying to locate which flower smells so pretty. I am sure Clint thinks I am insane walking around wiggling my nose and sniffing the air like a rabbit, but he loves me anyway.

I thought it might be fun to share some of the sights we see on our walks every once in a while.



These, my dear Hubby tell me, are butter cups. He did say he is not sure if that is their true name or not but apparently that is what all the little boys called them growing up.

Do you want to know why? I am sure you do because I was quite curious myself.

Apparently, all the little boys give these flowers to the little girls.

I am thinking..."Why yes, this makes sense, they grow wild everywhere. How sweet of the little boys to pick the wild flowers for the little girls."

But I was wrong.

According to my Hubby these flowers are given to the little girls because all little girls smell flowers, and when these specific flowers are sniffed, they leave yellow pollen all over the little girl's nose and face and looked like butter, hence the name Buttercup.

There go all thoughts of cute little playground romances.

I have a lot to learn about little boys....


Apparently this little guy lives here. He has been napping in this area of the yard nearly every night that we have walked by. He seems very content with his napping place and I would be too. It looks like some soft grass and is right beside some Star Jasmine which smell INCREDIBLE! Maybe he likes to come here and smell the flowers too.

It has been a while...

So, it has been a few days since I have updated my blog....What's that you say? Ok, Ok, so it may have been more than a few days. Just a little...

It turned in to a looong winter. It snowed a few times in the southern city that we call home. Now, it wasn't snow like some of my friends who live a bit further north consider snow, but white fell from the sky and it was enough for the airports to call a trace so therefore, snow! We had several freezes, which successfully managed to kill many of the flowers and other green, growing things that live in our part of the country year round. It seemed like we had far more gray cloudy days during this winter than sunny ones. In many ways it was winter in our personal life as well, dealing with financial stresses, family moving away and dreams and desires that, month after month continue to remain unfulfilled.

During this long winter, as you can probably tell, we didn't keep up with our project 365. We had a lot of fun doing it and I love looking back to see all the pictures and remembering what happened during specific weeks or months. After a while we started having such a hard time coming up with creative pictures while being confined to the apartment due to the weather, and the stress of coming up with a new picture every day, along with all of the other stress we were facing, was too much so we decided to give it a break. One day soon I hope to pick the project up again with a few slight modifications. I do miss taking pictures of our life.

But now IT'S SPRING! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the weather is beautiful. The trees have been covering the cars and sidewalk with yellow pollen (ACHOOOO!!) and life is good. Sure, money is still owed us, family is further away than I ever thought they would be and many dreams are still unfulfilled, but spring has also brought a spiritual renewal and hunger in to my life and I know that I can face these issues and they don't have to control my life or my mood. Spring has brought hope. As long as I have God to lead me and my husband to walk with me I can face the uncertainty.

So....with spring has also come a new hobby of sorts, something that makes me smile, something that gives me something positive to focus my energy on, something that I can nurture and take care of, something that makes me happy and gives me a place to escape when life gets overwhelming.

Introducing.......my peaceful escape, my patio garden.




The cheerful little yellow flowers that greet us when we get home.


Table top flowers.


Back patio.


The other half of the back patio.

In a few days, when I have more time I will post some close up pictures of the plants so you can see what makes up my little garden. I also have a few little plants in the house that I think are pretty cute too! (my garden may have gotten out of control!)